RJack<user@example.net> writes:
As the SFLC and Erik Andersen are learning to their dismay, a
valid Copyright Office registration of an open source project such
as a version of BusyBox requires the registration of all the
*individual* contributors' work all the way back to the original
author's initial contribution. In order for a complex and evolving
derivative work "as a whole" to be registered, each recursive,
preexisting version must also be registered -- a virtually
impossible task when multiple authors are involved see for
example:
[...]
The chances of a GPL project's enforcement in a federal court is
dead long before the judge ever reads the GPL.
The respective chances for success of copyright enforcement in court
are what causes the FSF to get copyright assignments for key pieces
of GNU software, pretty much from the start of when the GPL has been
designed. So it is not exactly news for them or the SFLC that
distributed copyright makes for rougher sailing.
There is no indication so far, however, that anything is going amiss
here. That the situation leaves more to fantasize about for our
resident legal nincompoops (as witnessed by their
quite-worse-than-random prediction track records) until the case
closes is not actually cause for worry.