From: mikeeusa2@firemail.cc
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Yes the GPL is revocable.
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2021 12:15:47 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <d43bae11f13a49c676f20c23e35b5b04@firemail.cc> (raw)
> However, nonexclusive licenses are revocable (meaning the copyright
> owner can revoke the license at any time) in the absence of
> consideration.
> https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/creating-written-contract-transfer-or-license-rights-under-copyright
> [...] The most plausible assumption is that a developer who releases
> code under the GPL may terminate GPL rights, probably at will.
> --David McGowan, Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School:
> p278 "Notice that in a copyright dispute over a bare license, the
> plaintiff will almost certainly be the copyright owner. If a licensee
> were foolish enough to sue to enforce the terms and conditions of the
> license, the licensor can simply revoke the bare license, thus ending
> the dispute. Remeber that a bare license in the absence of an interest
> is revocable."
> --Lawrence Rosen
> https://www.amazon.com/Open-Source-Licensing-Software-Intellectual/dp/013148787
> ("[N]onexclusive licenses are revocable absent
> consideration."). Where consideration is present, however, the
> license is irrevocable, and "[t]his is so because a
> nonexclusive license supported by consideration is a contract.
> Lulirama Ltd. v. Axcess Broad. Servs., Inc., 128 F.3d 872,
> 882 (5th Cir. 1997); see also Carson v. Dynegy, Inc., 344 F.3d
> 446, 451 (5th Cir. 2003).
> https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1592&context=faculty_scholarship
> For the same reason, a licensee's commitment to use offered software in
> a particular way cannot constitute consideration. Because the licensee
> has no right prior to the license to use the software in any way, a
> grant of only limited uses of it is merely a gift. The fact that the
> giver could have been even more generous by granting use of the
> software with no restrictions does not alter this conclusion. It is
> still the case that the licensee has not given up anything. Only if the
> licensee gives up some right, says contract law, will there be valid
> consideration.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Additionally if you dislike that method and prefer a different method
explicitly stated by Congress:
By statutory law, an author can recover any copyrights signed away after
(+-)30 years (US Copyright act).
The design of a program etc is a copyrightable aspect. RMS fixed this in
form 30 years ago.
> https://www.copyright.gov/docs/203.html
> Termination of Transfers and Licenses Under 17 U.S.C. §203
>
> Section 203 of the Copyright Act permits authors (or, if the authors
> are not alive, their surviving spouses, children or grandchildren, or
> executors, administrators, personal representatives or trustees) to
> terminate grants of copyright assignments and licenses that were made
> on or after January 1, 1978 when certain conditions have been met.
> Notices of termination may be served no earlier than 25 years after the
> execution of the grant or, if the grant covers the right of
> publication, no earlier than 30 years after the execution of the grant
> or 25 years after publication under the grant (whichever comes first).
> However, termination of a grant cannot be effective until 35 years
> after the execution of the grant or, if the grant covers the right of
> publication, no earlier than 40 years after the execution of the grant
> or 35 years after publication under the grant (whichever comes first).
reply other threads:[~2021-03-26 12:25 UTC|newest]
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