[thelist] Copyright ownership under LGPL

Keith Treuel treuel at tpg.com.au
Mon Jun 14 22:05:00 CDT 2004


Whilst I think this client is worrying about wrong things there are a few
reasons why he might feel copyright ownership is important.

1. Because you own the copyright you could effectively withdraw his use of
the code at any time or increase charges to him based on that copy right so
he feels "not in control"

2. I suspect that he may have been advised by a solicitor to get the
copyright ownership to protect himself. Of course solicitors give that
advice knowing full well that when they write terms and conditions they use
previously done work and they wouldn't give away or sell copyright on that
basis. If they did they would be breaking copyright laws for any minor use
of  work previously done for another client.

3. Your client is one of the "cautious ones" and in this litigious world who
can blame him/her. Unless your code is "pretty unique" it has probably all
been done before and so would not stand up to the test of copyright. Example
I put <html> tags on my html pages ...I hope the first person to do that
doesn't sue me for breech of copyright. It could be argued the designers of
PHP that the copyright of the standardly used php code they invented might
belong to them.... So I am not even sure whether you have the right to sell
the copyright. That would be my tack.... you have used standardised code and
so you aren't entitled to sell the copyright for that as even though you
typed it it isn't yours to sell and he wouldn't be the owner of it either.

It's an interesting issue..... and I may be 100% wrong on all of the above.

Good Luck
Hoppy




> Ken Schaefer wrote:
>
> >David,
> >
> >Should you really be posting this type of information to a public list?
> >Surely these types of things, even if not legally "commercial in
confidence"
> >should be kept between the parties concerned? Whilst you could seek
guidance
> >on the general issues involved, I would be more comfortable if you kept
the
> >specifics to yourself.
> >
> >
> Fair comments. However since david has not actually divulged the
> customer's name or email address i guess he is still in the clear. I
> will be jumping on your bandwagon ken, if he had given out any of this
> information.
>
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