Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Thu, 14 May 2009 19:17:59 -0700, Darren New wrote:
> 
>> You can own
>> the copyright and still not be allowed to make copies of what you own
>> the copyright on, let alone license others to do it.
> 
> Then you don't really hold the copyright.

Yes, you do. Copyright allows you to prevent others from making copies, just 
like patents prevent others from making machines.  But if there are multiple 
copyrights on something, it may be possible that none of the copyright 
holders can make copies.

If I take copyrighted proprietary software and link it with copyrighted 
GPL'ed software, who can give me permission to distribute the result?

> In the case of book 
> authorship, for example, copyright is assigned to the publisher while the 
> book is considered in print.  When a book goes out of print, the contract 
> between the author and publisher determines what happens to the copyright.

Yes. In that case, only one entity has copyright on the work, in which case 
the rights are exclusive. However, there's nothing that prevents multiple 
people from having copyrights on the work. It's possible for (for example) 
the director or studio to have a copyright on the film, and the musicians to 
have a copyright on the soundtrack. This sort of thing held up numerous 
releases when rental DVDs first started getting popular, because nobody had 
pre-negotiated with the band for DVD rights.

> When the book was declared out of print, I got a letter from the 
> publisher stating that the copyright rights were being transferred to me 
> and my co-author, in accordance with our contract.

It's not impossible for exactly one entity to hold a copyright. It's just 
not necessary. Copyright doesn't give you permission to copy things. It 
gives you permission to prevent others from copying things. A license gives 
you permission to make copies, not copyright.

Just like patents. If the device uses three different patented technologies, 
any one of those patent holders can refuse to license you their patent.

IANAL, but I did study this stuff in school.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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