[jawsscripts] Re: License and Copyright
- From: "E.J. Zufelt" <lists@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:14:48 -0300
Good evening,
Copyright and licensing works differently in different legal
jurisdictions. The following is general and not to be treated as
legal advice.
1. Almost any written work can be copyrighted. A copyright is a piece
of intellectual property, it can be sold or given away. Depending on
the jurisidiction copyright may need to be explicitly expressed, in
others it is implicit upon the authors publication of the work.
2. If you own the intellectual property rights to a work then you can
license others to use the work. There are many licensing schemes to
choose from, or you can write your own. gpl, lgpl (limited), bsd are
only a few.
3. If you are producing a work for someone else, an individual or
company, particulary if you are being paid for the production of the
work, then you need to be careful to specify that they are paying you
for your labor, and that they will not own the intellectual property
rights to the finished work. When I do work for an organization I
normally specify that they will receive a perpetual, non-exclusive
license to the work, meaning that they can use the work forever, but
that their license to do so is non-exclusive and that I can also use
the work for anything that I like, as I still own the intellectual
property rights and have not given them away by selling the rights, or
by offering an exclusive license to use the work.
HTH,
Everett
On 26-Mar-09, at 7:02 PM, Donald Marang wrote:
> Is there any process for licensing your software or applying for a
> copyright? Or are these things simply declared by the owner? I am
> asking because Verizon has shown interest in my scripts for Verizon
> Call Assistant. I intend to distribute them free to the blind
> community. I would not want Verizon or anyone else to "steel" them
> or profit from them.
> Jamal, what is the first "L" in LGPL stand for? From reading your
> description, I am guessing it stands for Limited.
>
> I am more familiar with the patent process. My Uncle worked for GE
> Plastics all his life and they had a policy of a $1 award for each
> patent! I know Microsoft and the record companies make a huge deal
> about copyright. Is this just declared, like placing a copyright
> notification at the bottom of a web page, or is there a legal
> registration somewhere?
>
> Don Marang
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