From: Dossy Date: 2002-05-17T11:04:33+09:00 Subject: Re: ANN: Programmierung in Ruby On 2002.05.17, Patrick May wrote: > She also noted that the translation cannot be released without some > type of agreement with original rights holder. There is an agreement with the original rights holder as expressed in the licensing terms: the OPL grants everyone a worldwide, royalty-free license to reproduce in part or whole the works covered under the OPL as long as the OPL is adhered to. In the case of a translation, as long as it is made available under terms that do not conflict with the OPL, then you or anyone else has the right to do exactly what was done. Some may consider it a flaw or weakness of the OPL, others consider it a feature since anyone is free to take up the responsibility of translating an OPL'ed work into another language without expressed prior consent of the original rights holder beyond the OPL. IANAL, of course. The OPL seems very liberal and its intent seems to make works under the OPL very free and with as little encumberance as possible. It basically protects the original rights holder's rights to the original work but gives away rights to any derivative works as long as the original rights holder is credited and the new work doesn't violate the OPL itself. As much as I dislike parts of the GPL, the GFDL seems quite reasonable for protecting non-software works. -- Dossy -- Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/ "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)