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Re: Effect of transfer of copyright on free software licenses?


From: Hyman Rosen
Subject: Re: Effect of transfer of copyright on free software licenses?
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:30:36 -0400
User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (Windows/20090605)

Alexander Terekhov wrote:
http://en.allexperts.com/e/p/pu/public_domain.htm
(As a general rule, licenses are revocable, and the GPL does not
> purport to be perpetual.)

In fact, GPLv3 <http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html>
does purport to be perpetual and irrevocable:
    All rights granted under this License are granted for the
    term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided
    the stated conditions are met.
GPLv2 did not contain any specification of term.

Courts have found (e.g., <http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/1101734>) that
for licenses where terms have not been specified, duration is not
controlled by section 203. Instead, state law is used to determine
what duration should be, and some states allow such indeterminate
licenses to be revoked immediately.

Anyway, there's very little precedent for these sorts of things,
so if it does come up, courts are going to have to blaze their way
through relatively unexplored territory. The Butthole Surfers court
above said in 1999:
    Despite the fact that ยง 203 was enacted over 20 years ago as
    part of the Copyright Act of 1976, there is very limited case
    law on its interpretation. The only case from a court of appeals
    is from the Ninth Circuit, Rano v. Sipa Press, 987 F.2d 580 (1993).


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