ykhan wrote:Perhaps it would just be simpler to give Vic credit for his layout design since the VicidialNOW team did not actually design it. I understand that they mad ethe CODE work with the design, but i am still unclear on the copyrights of the DESIGN vs CODE here.
Opinion: the "Design" is in the same file as the "Code" ... then the changes made to the original should be credited to the person who made the change and the original code must be made available to the "receiver" so that there is no confusion (who wrote what) and to "adhere" to the licensing structure (you make changes to this code, you must release YOUR code).
IF the "design" is in a sep file, and NOT a revision of the original code, then the credit for that sep file obviously goes entirely to the writer of that code. Design may be a "visual thing", but this is computing ... and all this visual stuff still comes down to code, and someone wrote it. Obviously to USE the sep file, you would have to modify several of the other files and the original file. Those revisions would need to be published so the recipient knows who wrote what.
Most importantly (in my opinion): when "Vic" gave his changes to his client, he GAVE the client the original code, all the changes and the source code for both. So the CLIENT, as required by the licensing, knew who wrote what and had the code for any modified files available.
But with VicidialNOW ... who wrote which parts of which files? Is this information available to all recipients so credit goes where it belongs for individual parts.
I think Vic was trying to be sure that everyone knew who wrote what, and had ensured that with his client.
I think VicidialNOW is simply trying to get as much available to the public as possible, and did publish all the code as required.
So the question is simply who wrote what. I mean, will The Vicidial Group get blamed for a horrible bug written by Vic because we no longer know who wrote what code? Or will VicidialNOW get credit for well-written code by Vic? (design is in the code, remember?)
As for "publishing without permission" ... let's be real. The files in question have their licensing written in them. If Vic included a copyright notice in his files, they are copyrighted under the terms of that license. If not, one must assume that they follow the licensing of the overall product, which means VicidialNOW is free to distribute them if VicidialNOW receives a distributed copy without notice of any other licensing. And: Did Vic include a statement in his files that HE wrote them and under what licensing version?
See, now you guys got ME doin it. Sheesh.
On the other hand, this IS all on CentOS, so the "Drama" should not be entirely surprising. Oops, did I actually print that one? OK, back to work. Rant over.