2 Aug
2009
2 Aug
'09
9:32 a.m.
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