- From: Bijan Parsia <bparsia@cs.man.ac.uk>
- Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 10:48:17 +0100
- To: Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com>
- Cc: public-html-comments@w3.org, "Ian Hickson" <ian@hixie.ch>
On 9 Jun 2010, at 10:15, Anne van Kesteren wrote: > On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:49:29 +0200, Bijan Parsia > <bparsia@cs.man.ac.uk> wrote: >> Which is it? Unless Apple Computer, Inc., Mozilla Foundation, and >> Opera Software ASA have transferred ownership, they remain the >> owners (though they grant a liberal license, of course). If there >> are bits that belong to the W3C, shouldn't *all* the copyright >> owners be listed? > > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Apr/0429.html > http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/40318/htmlbg/results """If the group is agreeable to these proposals, Apple, Mozilla and Opera will agree to arrange a non-exclusive copyright assignment to the W3 Consortium for HTML5 specifications.""" What is a "non-exclusive copyright assignment"? That, to my knowledge, makes no sense. Copyright assignment sets up an owner of the rights. One may, of course, license rights on a non-exclusive basis. As it stands now, it seems like both Apple, Mozilla, and Opera on the one hand and the W3C, on the other, are exclusive owners. (See their copyright notices.) If they are joint owners, then I would expect the copyright notices to be inclusive. If AMO are licensing to the W3C, I would expect to see the W3C's notice list AMO as the owners. Typically assignment is done in writing. (looking at <http:// producingoss.com/en/copyright-assignment.html>) Also, that isn't how the W3C normally (at least from it's IP FAQ) handles things. I.e., unlike the FSF, it doesn't ask for copyright assignment. Cheers, Bijan. P.S., Usual disclaimer's apply. The divergence in copyright notices is certainly unusual.
Received on Wednesday, 9 June 2010 09:47:51 UTC