[LAD] students and copyright

[Ralf Mardorf]

Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> DISCLAIMER
>
> I don't want to discuss the merits of any particular
> case. If I refer to Prof. Keller it is only by way of
> example, and not to suggest he should justify himself
> on this list. Of course I'm still interested in his
> views on these matters.
>
> END DISCLAIMER
>
> Prof. Keller writes 'We employ the students ...'.
>
> That would certainly be the case for a post-graduate
> student who becomes a teaching or research assistant
> and who receives a stipend from the institute or any
> of its sponsors. The transfer of copyright is usually
> stipulated in the contract in this case (and in some
> cases, it has to be and is not automatic).
>
> It is certainly not correct for any normal student
> who would actually be paying the institute instead
> of the reverse. In market-economic terms such a
> student is a customer, not an employee. In that
> case it would seem morally wrong (to me) if the
> institute 'grabs' his copyright.
>
> And what would be the situation of (again, just an
> example) Prof. Keller himself ? Certainly he is an
> employee of his educational institute. 
>
>
> Ciao,

Referring to the copyleft statements by Stallman and the FSF you can 
have a copyright by FLOSS, by GNU, but not by the GPL itself. The 
institute might have a copyright for the software's name and the logos, 
but each coder has to copyleft his changes on GPL code.

Students or developers for proprietary companies that don't use GPL code 
might lost the copyright for their intellectual property because of 
contracts. What ever I have done for Brauner microphones when I worked 
for him, is owned by Brauner and not by me. I was paid to do it, even if 
I was disproportional bad paid. Students won't get money, but the 
universities might have contracts with the students, resp. with 
proprietary companies that cooperate with universities, so they might 
have to pay less college tuitions.

For the GPL there only seems to be one way. The coder needs to keep the 
original author and to add his name and the date when he changed GPL 
code and if he writes complete new code, he needs to add his name and 
need it to do by matching to GPL versions of GPL code done by other 
authors, that is included to his project. No institute can take on a 
copyright, while the institute is using GPL licensed code.

I don't understand the GPL, but this is repeated and repeated by 
Stallman and the FSF. I don't think, that I'm mistaken, but I might be 
wrong.

Ciao,
Ralf