Re: Fwd: That whole "Linux stealing our code" thing

[Krzysztof Halasa <khc@pm.waw.pl>]

Daniel Hazelton <dhazelton@enter.net> writes:

>> Actually (and I think it's the same in the USA), a copyrighted work
>> has an implicit "all rights reserved". A licence is just exception.
>
> And? The fact remains that "All Rights Reserved" means "I am reserving all 
> rights I do not specifically grant or waive".

Sure.
That means you can't use a work without obtaining a licence first
(unless you are the copyright holder and don't need (can't have)
the licence).

I.e., as the author, you don't have to write those "copyright xxx"
and the work is still protected.

> ie: If a license doesn't 
> state 'The licenser hereby waives the right to revoke this license at any 
> time' then that right hasn't been lost.

Yes, it hasn't been *lost*. It just never existed :-)
(with exception of those things starting 40 or so years after the
original publication, I think we can safely skip this part).

Obviously, the copyright holder is free to distribute the work
under a different licence next time (but (s)he has to make sure it's
ok with licences (s)he uses, if it's a derived work).
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa