From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2002-07-01T05:50:38+09:00
Subject: Re: documentation licenses (was: eruby SAFE question)

Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@pinkjuice.com> writes:

> Dave, could you shortly explain what happened, and how to prevent it?
> I'm sure that would be appreciated by many here, who are also making
> decisions about licenses.

I don't know if there is a way to prevent it, What happened is that
someone in Germany translated the book and decided that they now owned
the copyright to all the content (including, interestingly, all the
figures and code). As the new copyright holder, they then felt free to
change the license under which the work was released (because all
these schemes enforce the license through copyright).

The best opinions I have say that this is a breach of
copyright. However, I'm also told that had we included option (1) of
the OPL we'd have a clearer case.

> http://www.rubycentral.com/book/
> says
> "Copyright � 2001 by Addison Wesley Longman, Inc."
> 
> Shouldn't that be "� 2001 Dave Thomas Andy Hunt"?

No - Addison Wesley own the copyright.

> With options 1 and 2, are you refering to ...

Yes.



Basically, the entire Open Source thing is based on trust. When that
trust is breached, the options open to individuals are pretty
limited. I don't know yet what action Addison Wesley will be taking in
this case, but I do know that personally there's little that Andy or I
could do apart from express disappointment.

However, please don't let this put anyone off releasing stuff under an
Open Source license. You're doing the community a world of good. Just
understand the limitations of the license from a pragmatic
perspective.


Cheers


Dave