On 8/21/07, Bryan Tong Minh <bryan.tongminh(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 8/21/07, David Blomstrom
<webmaster(a)geobop.org> wrote:
it's possible that people could begin copying
any text I wrote, claiming
it is no longer protected by copyright.
I doubt that is the case, although I'm not sure. From what I
understand, you have two options in such a case: a) You follow the
terms of the license and license your work according to the copyleft
license or b) You don't follow the terms of the license and commit
copyright infringement. In case b) people can sue you and demand huge
amounts of money from you, but that does not immediately mean that
your work is no longer protected by copyright.
Is this correct? Or am I just talking nonsense?
Thats right. An abuse of copyleft license does not free your other
works. Committing copyright infringement will open you to various
forms of liability for your actions. Although the most common first
step with copyright violations is just being ordered to stop
infringing.
You may find, however, that you may have a difficult time enforcing
the copyright on your infringing work until that infringement is
resolved. Go go gadget unclean hands.
It may well be that the easiest and most face saving way to resolve an
infringement is to freely license your work, but you shouldn't ever be
required to do so.
As authors of copylefted content we should all be careful to be
reasonably gentle with our enforcement. "We don't want money, We don't
want publicity. We want compliance." We can't earn goodwill by asking
for blood, and we depend on the goodwill of the public more than most.