[fpc-devel] LGPL vs BSD

[Jonas Maebe]

On 4 aug 2006, at 16:02, Daniël Mantione wrote:

>> No, you need approval of all copyright holders. Everyone who has  
>> submitted
>> patches and did not explicitly assign the copyright to one of the  
>> FPC team
>> members, retains the copyright on the code in that patch
>
>> (to the extent that
>> this code was copyrightable in the first place, i.e. it was not  
>> simply a
>> typo-correction or so -- where exactly the boundary is can only be  
>> decided by
>> a court on a case-by-case basis).
>
> Exactly, if I make a suggestion to an author of a book to change
> something, I cannot claim copyright on it.

If the author of the book literally inserts your text (or bases his  
own text on yours) then you (co-)own the copyright on that part of  
the book.

> Therefore the vast majority of
> patches are not protected by copyright.

Plenty of code has been integrated which is more than just a oneliner.

> Only if a patch adds enough code that it can be considered a "work" as
> specified in the copyright laws,

A procedure is most certainly "a work". And significantly rewriting  
one would also be one.


Jonas