Logo licenses (was Re: [Actionchix] Final versions of robotux are here!)

[lawgon at thenilgiris.com]

> On Fri, Apr 07, 2006, lawgon at thenilgiris.com wrote:
>> 1. There is no such thing as an irrevocable license. The copyright
>> holder
>> can always revoke it at any time. If the license is paid for, this is a
>> different thing and the copyright holder may have to pay damages - but
>> this does not apply here.
>
> How does this work with licences like the GPL and so on? Is your opinion
> that they can, in fact, be revoked at any time, so that for example,
> Linus Torvalds could revoke the GPL on his code and sue the thousands of
> people who have made derivative works? If not, what is going on with
> that?

A few points

1. No one can revoke with retrospective effect. Whats given is given.

2. English Common law has two concepts - law and equity. Law is usually
made by the legislature, equity by the judiciary. Equity really means
fairness. The courts should try to be fair. It is unfair to revoke and
leave a lot of people in a lurch - which is the main selling point of the
anti-gpl folk.

3. Sooner or later, this issue is going to land up before the supreme
courts in practically all countries - but currently lower courts would, in
my opinion, stick to the letter of the law. Either the supreme courts or
the legislatures will have to legislate on this at some time.

4. In a complex case like the copyright to the linux kernel, it is
debatable as to what percentage of it belongs to linus, so there would be
some debate as to the effectiveness of his revoking it. But in the case of
a logo, where there is a single creater/copyright holder there is no
doubt.

5. It would be interesting to get a reaction from RMS and Lawrence Lessig
on this issue

>
> If so, I'm really uncomfortable with using any logo "at Val's pleasure"
> or "at Jenn's pleasure" or whatever, because even people who are *very*
> core to LinuxChix have been known to pack up and take off, but I have no
> idea what to do about it.

The legal entity route is the solution

kg