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GPL Hard to Enforce?

Posted by samzenpus on from the who-owns-it dept.

the-dark-kangaroo writes "The GPL may be difficult to enforce due to a lack of clarity over who owns the copyright to the software, according to a legal expert. Lucie Guibault, an assistant professor of intellectual-property law at the Institute for Information Law in Amsterdam, said at the Holland Open Software Conference in Amsterdam, that the GPL should clarify who is the author of the software to ensure that open source software distributed under this licence receives legal protection."

4 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Is it just me, or is GPL software real garbage?
    I mean, all these closed-source, shareware apps I have work so much better.

  2. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll
    The GPL is just another copyright mechanism. Why should anyone care that the author wanted to give his code away when we apparently don't care in the case when he wants to profit from it?

    One copyright enforcement is as bad as another, right? Information is free? Once released, the authors/creators wishes have no bearing, right?

    Seriously. Why is ignoring one bad, and the other, good?

  3. whats in a name by aztec+rain+god · · Score: -1, Troll

    GPL = general public license. . . public- means it belongs to everyone pretty straightforward to me. . .

    --
    Sig cannot be found.
  4. Re:Yes you can. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Yet when you are at the throes of death, you turn to an American doctor. Perhaps the French system isn't as flawless as you think?