[Freepats] Re: GPL for sound samples

[Mark Constable]

Redirected back to the Freepats mailing-list, so I'll top-post
my comment...

The issue here is that there will be multiple contributors to
an instrument patch set, most likely a sf2 format soundfount,
and one way to deal with that in, the context of the GPL, is for
all contributors to assign to a single "neutral owner" of which
the FSF is the most obvious entity.

Thank you for the links Roberto. Aside from the awkwardness of
having multiple copyright owners for the soundfont patch set,
this outlines a practical reason for doing so.

 only the copyright holder or someone having assignment of
 the copyright can enforce the license. If there are multiple
 authors of a copyrighted work, successful enforcement depends
 on having the cooperation of all authors.

 From: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/why-assign.html

This only applies to a single "set of instrument patches" which
includes multiple samples by a number of people. The FSF may or
may not want to have their name legally associated with the
license and our potential exemption.

On Thursday 13 April 2006 18:29, Roberto Gordo Saez wrote:
> On 4/13/06, Marcos Guglielmetti Gmail <marcospcmusica at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think they are a little confused about the GPL copyrigth notice: I
> > think they believe that, as the GPL was created by FSF, they should put
> > this notice "Copyright (C) 2004-2006 Free Software Foundation" in
> > theirs sound samples packages: but I think there has been a little
> > misunderstanding here... now you could talk together, cheers!
> 
> I don't think it is a misunderstanding. Sometimes it is useful to
> transfer the copyright to the FSF. It has some benefits; the FSF can
> better defend the GPL in case of a violation. I think Mark is asking
> if it is a good idea to do it, since it is not a software package.
> Take a look at this:
> 
> http://www.fsf.org/licensing/assembly.html
> http://www.fsf.org/licensing/assigning.html
> http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/why-assign.html
> 
> Personally, I don't care very much for this, but I worry for other
> things instead, like compatibility and the exact meaning of GPL terms
> when applied non software works.


--markc