LWN.net Logo

Not logged in

Log in now

Create an account

Subscribe to LWN

Recent Features

LWN.net Weekly Edition for May 16, 2013

A look at the PyPy 2.0 release

PostgreSQL 9.3 beta: Federated databases and more

LWN.net Weekly Edition for May 9, 2013

(Nearly) full tickless operation in 3.10

Printable page
Weekly edition Kernel Security Distributions Contact Us Search
Archives Calendar Subscribe Write for LWN LWN.net FAQ Sponsors

All rights reserved

All rights reserved

Posted Jan 17, 2013 23:16 UTC (Thu) by simosx (subscriber, #24338)
In reply to: All rights reserved by neilbrown
Parent article: A discordant symphony

As mentioned earlier, there is a common misconception what 'copyright' and what 'All rights reserved' means.

Under the Berne Convention, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Pro...
any artistic work (like software) grants the creator full rights, as in 'All Rights Reserved'. This is automatic and you do not need to claim 'All Rights Reserved'. As the owner, you are in the position to attach a license such as the GPL, so that other can use your code (according to the GPL).

Free software depends on copyright; without copyright, you cannot enforce the GPL!

Therefore, when you search for 'All Rights Reserved', you must check that the GPL (or similar) is also attached to the code.

(Log in to post comments)

Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds