[Coco] The dire condition of software documentation..

[Alex Evans]

You could have inherited those rights and not know about it. You could
buy an entity which holds copyrights that are not well documented and
not know about it. There are lots of ways to end up holding a
copyright where you don't realize you own the copyright. Legally, yes.
Ethically, I'm sorry, but the intent of copyright law based in the
English tradition is to encourage the creation of intellectual
property while simultaneously trying to give the widest availability
for use. While legally wrong any use which does not diminish the
effectiveness of copyright in encouraging the creation of intellectual
property is *not* unethical. Violating the copyrights of someone who
is using those rights intentionally or not in a manner that is in
opposition to the intent in granting those rights is not unethical.

And again, figuring out *who* holds the rights can be damned difficult
and it can be unclear who owns the copyright.

Why has copyright always been such a touchstone on this list? We all
already know that if the issue of copyright comes up, it is likely to
degenerate into a flame war and here I am contributing to that
possibility.

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM Bill Gunshannon
<bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 8/12/19 9:26 AM, Alex Evans wrote:
> > The question of who holds the copyright can be vague or at least very
> > difficult to figure out.
>
> If you didn't create it or buy the rights you do not hold the
> Copyright.  Somebody does and those rights should be respected
> both legally and ethically.
>
> bill
>
>
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