Re: Generation of permutations

[dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)]

Wes Groleau <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message news:<3CCED088.61B3AAE2@despammed.com>...

This seemed so seriously in error that I feel I should post a comment.

> -- Tedious but important Legal Stuff:
> --
> --    The original author claimed no copyright.  In order to protect
> --    what seemed to be his intent, I am assigning copyright to the
> --    Free Software Foundation with the condtions below.  I reserve the
> --    right to revoke this assignment if and when requested by the
> --    original author.

This doesn't sound like legal stuff (tedious or otherwise) to me, it sounds
like a clear copyright violation. A lot of people (the writer of the above
presumably included) are under the illusion that an author must explicitly
"claim" copyright by including an explicit copyright message. This is totally
false under current law. All material is copyrighted unless the author
explicitly disclaims copyright.

Only the author of a piece of software can offer to assign the copyright
to someone else, and this assignment is only valid if an appropriate instrument
of assignment is signed by both parties. You can't just slap "copyright FSF"
on something and think it is assigned even if you ARE the author, and if you
are not the author, it is seriously wrong to pretend that you can do this
assignment.

By copying this software without taking the trouble to check on the status,
the author of the above message is almost certainly committing a violation
of the author's copyright. Wes then by posting this package has also committed
a violation, and anyone copying this message will also be violating the
copyright. At $50,000 each, the statutory penalty for copyright violation, it
sounds like the author can get rich :-) Note that it is not a defense to 
claim you didn't know. If you have access, and you copy, you are guilty.

This is why it is SO essential to ensure that you have proper license to 
things you copy. For example, the mere fact that there is a GPL notice
on file you obtain from the net does not mean you have the right to copy
it. You have to first ensure that the copyright holder has in fact issued
this license. You first have to find out who the copyright holder is. As
this example shows, that may not be easy.

I take the opportunity to write this off-topic contribution to this thread
because this seems an area where a lot of people have a lot of very wrong
ideas.  

Note that I am not an attorney, so this is not legal advice, merely my best
understanding as an expert in copyright law on the state of things!

Robert Dewar