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From: James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@HansenPartnership.com>
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Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
	ksummit-discuss@lists.linuxfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] Owning your own copyrights in
 Linux
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On Mon, 2016-08-29 at 19:07 -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Aug 2016 15:39:57 -0700
> James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@HansenPartnership.com> wrote:
> > Just on this point, one of the problems with companies is that they
> > sell stuff, go bust or get bought out.  Perhaps this will never 
> > apply to Red Hat (although never say never) but many other people 
> > have to bear in mind that the entity they trust to hold the kernel
> > copyrights today may not be the same entity tomorrow.
> > 
> 
> I guess the interesting point is what happens to the copyrights if 
> Red Hat goes bust? Who defends it?

Like all IP, it would get bought out of bankruptcy by someone.  It's
not just defence, it's also offence.  Suppose the new owner wanted to
make a business model of suing others (à la McHardy)?  However, these
are all hypotheticals.  The main reason you might want to own your own
copyrights is to have a say in enforcing them.

James