[WikiEN-l] Knol - Our first major scandel

[Anthony]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> Free software is usually a series of derivative works rather than a
> work of joint authorship. It doesn't make much sense, but that's how I
> understand it to work. (IANAL and when the law is as nonsensical as
> this, I don't intend to become one!)


In this case I think RMS/Eben Moglen are as much to blame as the law
(they're the ones that invented the copyleft, aren't they?).  Treating a
collaboration of 100 authors as 99 derivative works gives everyone a
headache.  Traditional works that have this many authors generally get
around the problem by the formation of a single entity to own the copyright
(usually as a work for hire).