On Thu, 23 Aug 2012, Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
I doubt, however, that copyright assignment is necessary for this. An organization concerned with defending the GPL could just contact contributors in the event of a dispute and obtain authorization from them to pursue an action in their names.
From what I've heard the FSF has no interest in doing that.
I haven't looked into the details of this, but superfically at least, it isn't clear why this should be any different from an insurance company which has a right under an insurance contract to bring suet against allegedly negligent parties to recover damages.
An insurance company has to pay if no-one else does. Therefore they have a vested interest in the case as they directly lose money.
Either way, it's easier if the organization that runs the case is also the copyright holder, but I'm not sure how much of an advantage it is, as long as the contributors are willing to have proceedings brought on their behalf. I would expect the actual evidence and the level of involvement required of contributors, if any, to be similar in either circumstance.
No matter what happens if my code is involved in a legal dispute then qualified lawyers will argue the matter in court and my testimony will probably be important to the case. Whether it's me or someone else running the case, it won't be me making legal arguments. But I think that for copyright enforcement I would need to be involved in bringing the case to court. Copyright is about the rights of the "owner" not about damage to innocent third parties - unlike insurance cases. If I departed for regions unknown and didn't assign my code to the FSF or some similar organisation then I doubt that any legal action would be possible. Has anyone considered the option of writing a will to leave all their copyright to the FSF? -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/