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

[Hyman Rosen]

Rjack wrote:
> Just because you write something into a contract's terms doesn't
> make it enforceable

It's not a contract, it's a license. If I want to write a license
for my work that says that I give a non-exclusive grant to persons
to whom I distribute, and to persons to whom they further distribute,
provided they meet my conditions, the exclusive rights to authorize
given to me by 17 USC 106 allow me to do this.

> 17 USC 301(a)

As usual, your irrational fixation on federal preemption of state
copyright laws makes no sense.

> 17 USC 205 concerns *existing* non-exclusive licenses and not
> purported future *new* licenses "downstream". Only the owner of
> copyright can grant a new license -- it's an *exclusive* right.

Yes. That's why we're discussing the transfer issue. It's possible
that a transfer of copyright to a GPL-hostile entity could cause
downstream distribution to be disallowed. That's a good argument
for assigning copyrights to an organization like the FSF.

> The GPL is harmless (other than SFLC harassment) because it's legally
> unenforceable.

Once this is said by a court rather than by a fool on Usenet,
I'll get back to you.