Re: Re-write

[Simon Josefsson <jas@pdc.kth.se>]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> writes:

> > Any lawyers here?  Is it OK to take functions from nnimap, functions
> > which are exclusively written by me, or is that code only viewed as
> > patches to the original nnimap and would still be under the original
> > copyright?
> 
> I am not a lawyer, but under the Berne convention, all code written by
> you is your intellectual property.  For instance, even though you have
> licensed your functions through one license (by having them included
> in nnimap), you are free to take your functions to any other package
> and release them under some other license there.  And so on.

Wouldn't this mean this FSF-owns-the-copyright is pointless for most,
community-developed, programs?

I mean, if I submit a patch to a program I don't have to sign over the
copyright to the FSF. In fact, I would own the copyright of that
patch, not the FSF.

Everyone (or at least the FSF?) seems to think that the FSF still owns
the copyright of the entire program though. But if this would be the
case, it would also mean that my "patches" to nnimap.el is still owned
by the original nnimap author and would not be my property.

/s