Tom Lane <tgl <at> redhat.com> writes:
> [ blink... ] I would be interested to know what legal theory claims
> that DJB cannot relicense his own work.
Believe it or not, in most European countries, you can't place anything in the
public domain, especially not after you claimed copyright for it first. Under
such a system, you can only license your rights (e.g. under a BSD-style
license), not give them up. In addition, there may be rights which cannot even
be licensed, for example in France, you can't use a work in a way which hurts
the author's image/reputation (and I believe that part of a French copyright
doesn't even expire); even if the license allows it, the clause allowing it is
void (or if it's a broad BSD-style "you can do anything" clause, reinterpreted
so "anything" doesn't include hurting the author's reputation).
(Of course all this is not legal advice, I am not a lawyer, laws may vary
wildly between countries in Europe, and the above paragraph may contain
mistakes. But disclaimers aside, I hope I got the general idea across. ;-) )
Kevin Kofler
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