mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) (06/17/87)
In article <1834@drivax.UUCP> holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) writes:
<If C-A distributed them, that would make them at least partially responsible
<for the programs - guess who'd be called if there were any questions, problems,
<etc. Plus, they'd be adding value to the system with the software, so SOME
<sort of payment would be due the original authors, probably on a royalty
<basis. I still think that C-A should send along (at least) a list of user
<groups in the area.
Whether payment is due the original authors depends on how they were
realeased. Much of the source on the Fish disks has *nothing* in the
way of copyrights on it. C/A is free to do with it as they will,
including put their copyright on it, and sell it for $1000/copy.
Stuff I do by myself all goes out with a copyright notice saying that
C/A can give it away if they want to, so long as they include source
with my copyright notice. For various reasons, mg (as a whole) carries
no copyright notice, but bits and pieces of it have things attached
(part of the mg distribution carries the Free Software Foundation
restrictions, for instance).
Copyright laws are sticky things. Before saying who has to do what for
whom, you ought to consult a lawyer. Likewise, before doing anything
with software that involves non-trivial dollars, check with a lawyer.
You can find a good discussion of this issue in the documentation that
comes with netnews 2.11.
<mike
--
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