> If I was a legal eagle, I might
> have more idea about whether or not that's grounds for a case, and
> if so, who would be in a position to take such action.
It is the copyright owner that would be wronged and thus the
copyright owner who would have to bring a civil action. In a
few extreme cases - where the infringement happened "in the
course of business" the wrong may become criminal but the police
have better things to do so again it would be up to the copyright
owner to initiate action.
> To me this implies that "Hennus Bergman" wrote that file and hence owns
> the copyright to it and that the file is not in fact placed under GPL.
You are confusing ownership of copyright and license to a copyright
work. The GPL is a *license* which allows non-copyright owners to
use the work in stated ways which may otherwise infringe the rights
of the copyright owner. Since the entire Linux kernel is covered
by the GPL submission of a file for inclusion in the kernel implies
that the author wishes the file to be placed under the GPL - if the
file is distributed as part of the Linux kernel. There are many,
many copyright holders involved in the Linux kernel. There is one
license - the GPL - covering the whole lot. Individual authors may
also have made their work available under other licenses - their
option.
> * This code is heavily based on the code on the old ip_fw.c code; see below for
> * copyrights and attributions of the old code. This code is basically GPL.
There is nothing wrong with this - assuming the "old ip_fw.c code"
allowed this sort of use.
> Reading later down in the file, it clearly contains a different license
> to the GPL which is in fact against the license - unless permission has
> been granted by the FSF for such to be allowed (in which case it would
> probably be prudent to mention that somewhere).
It is nothing to do with the FSF. The copyright owner can issue
as many licenses with whatever terms they like (as long as they don't
fall foul of unfair contract laws). The FSF may have written the
GPL but that doesn't mean they automatically become the copyright
owner of anything the GPL is issued against. Assigning copyright
to someone other than the original author requires written statements
and signatures at the very least.
Mike
-- .----------------------------------------------------------------------. | Mike Jagdis | Internet: mailto:mike@roan.co.uk | | Roan Technology Ltd. | | | 54A Peach Street, Wokingham | Telephone: +44 118 989 0403 | | RG40 1XG, ENGLAND | Fax: +44 118 989 1195 | `----------------------------------------------------------------------'
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