Messages in this thread | | | From | Daniel Hazelton <> | Subject | Re: Fwd: That whole "Linux stealing our code" thing | Date | Tue, 4 Sep 2007 19:08:04 -0400 |
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On Tuesday 04 September 2007 15:44:31 Michael Poole wrote: > Chris Friesen writes: > > Daniel Hazelton wrote: > >> On Tuesday 04 September 2007 09:27:02 Krzysztof Halasa wrote: > >>>Daniel Hazelton <dhazelton@enter.net> writes: > >>>>US Copyright law. A copyright holder, regardless of what license he/she > >>>>may have released the work under, can still revoke the license for a > >>>>specific person or group of people. (There are some exceptions, but > >>>> they do not apply to the situation that is being discussed) > > > > The OpenBSD policy page doesn't agree with you: > > > > "...That means that having granted a permission, the copyright holder > > can not retroactively say that an individual or class of individuals > > are no longer granted those permissions. Likewise should the copyright > > holder decide to "go commercial" he can not revoke permissions already > > granted for the use of the work as distributed, though he may impose > > more restrictive permissions in his future distributions of that work." > > > > http://www.openbsd.org/policy.html > > By my reading, this is supported by 17 USC 203(a)(3): > > (3) Termination of the grant may be effected at any time during a > period of five years beginning at the end of thirty-five years > from the date of execution of the grant; or, if the grant covers > the right of publication of the work, the period begins at the > end of thirty-five years from the date of publication of the > work under the grant or at the end of forty years from the date > of execution of the grant, whichever term ends earlier. > > (from > http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000203----000- >.html )
Ah, I am both right and wrong, it seems. Apparently you have to wait anywhere form 35 to 40 years, and then you only have a five year window. Seems damned strange to me, but oh well.
(I'd totally forgotten that part of the law - or my mind decided to play tricks on me.)
DRH
PS: See, I will admit it when I'm shown evidence that I'm wrong :)
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