Re: Re: [PEPr] +1 for System::System_Mount

Hi Folks: Following up on the licensing/copyright discussion... On Sun, May 30, 2004 at 10:36:56PM -0400, Daniel Convissor wrote: > On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 08:45:11PM -0700, Ian Eure wrote: > > > > Yes, this is how I interpret it - that copyright notice says that the > > license text is copyrighted by the PHP Group. > > I'm willing to wager two beers[1] that the copyright notice is about the > code and not the license itself. On this segment of the discussion, considering the people who stared PEAR are folks deeply involved in the PHP Group, I'm thinking that the header text currently put forth by the coding standards was copied verbatim from files that the PHP Group acually has copyright on. Therefore, the "Copyright (c) 1997-2003 The PHP Group" is merely an artifact. My cousin who specializes in this area of law said the following... "Actually, you can (and often do) have multiple copyright notices. So it is hard to tell if the PHP copyright notice is a leftover as you suggest (perfectly possible), or if it refers to ownership of an earlier (base) version of some code that a subsequent modification (derivative work) was based upon, and to which the second copyright notice relates. You just can't tell from the notice itself." This brings up two specific matters. First, Ian, to improve clarity over the notices in System_Mount... If the code base is solely yours, it seems like a good idea to delete the PHP copyright line. Though, if the work is dirivative, it would help to clarify that in your @copyright text. Second, in general, we should probably update the header section of the coding standards to explain this. Now, on the beer bet, though the actual situation is unclear so it's hard to say who won, I'll be more than happy to buy you some beers anyway. :) > > The copyright on the code /cannot/ be > > owned by the PHP Group unless it is signed over. > > No signatures needed and it's not a matter of ownership, per se. Just > releasing it under the license is consent. You're right. Back to my cousin's reply... "The PHP license governs the terms of use and distribution, as well as liability. The copyright notice declares authorship..." "To my knowledge, PHP (and the other public licensing groups) do not own the copyright in any of the programs distributed under their licenses, but I could be wrong about that." Enjoy, --Dan -- T H E A N A L Y S I S A N D S O L U T I O N S C O M P A N Y data intensive web and database programming http://www.AnalysisAndSolutions.com/ 4015 7th Ave #4, Brooklyn NY 11232 v: 718-854-0335 f: 718-854-0409