On Apr 1, 2014, at 11:43 PM, David Gibson <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 01, 2014 at 12:59:43PM -0600, Warner Losh wrote: >> >> On Apr 1, 2014, at 10:57 AM, Rob Herring <robherring2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >>> Ben Herrenschmidt. Who is the copyright holder on a file in the kernel >>> with no copyright? Does this default to the author or Linus or nobody? >> >> In the absence of a formal, written conveyance of the Copyright, it belongs >> to the author(s) of that file. > > It might depend on jurisdiction, but I don't believe presence or > absence of a copyright notice actually changes who holds the > copyright. It just makes it easier or harder to figure out who htat > is. Pedantically correct. In the US copyright can only be transferred in writing. Most other countries are similar, but there is still variation despite the attempts to make it completely uniform. But the important bit is that there’s no “default” author in copyright law if one fails to document the author. It doesn’t go to Torvalds or The Linux Foundation or the Easter Bunny. The original author is the person who wrote it, or if it was a work for hire or such a contract exists then the employer of the person who wrote it. Just to add more wrinkles to the mix. Warner -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe devicetree-compiler" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
