[ale] Are our Ethernet drivers in danger?

[Robert Heaven]

I think, perhaps, the proper terminology is "public domain". Any work done
by any employee of the US (or state) government, including written works and
inventions, and paid for by the tax payers, is considered public domain.
Consequently, these works cannot be copyrighted or patented and are
available for use by anyone. This concept goes back to the early days of the
US when the founding fathers set down the basic principle that the
government cannot "own" anything. Our congressional representatives are
simply our "agents" that spend our money on our behalf.

The only exception to this rule is when the government contracts with a
private company for the development or production of a product where that
private company produces the writing/invention. In this case, even though we
pay for the "work for hire", the private company is allowed to
copyright/patent the works. Although, there has been allot of controversy
over this issue, which is why the governments have been mandated to purchase
over-the-counter products as much as possible.

----- Original Message -----
From: Darin Lang <darin at doolang.com>
To: ale at ale.org
To: <ale at ale.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: [ale] Are our Ethernet drivers in danger?


> No law is violated.  GPL'd software IS available for the private sector.
In
> fact it is the only software that truly is available to the private
sector.
> Someone perhaps does not understand the term private sector which means
> non-governmental sector. Nasa's research and development and in fact all
> governmental research is paid for by public money, therefore the
technology,
> etc belongs to the people. That's the theory anyways, anybody can see that
> it doesn't work that way, or perhaps it does it just takes 30 years for it
> to be declassified (ecryption, GPS, etc).
>
> What is actually being pushed below is M$'s latest propoganda campaign to
> discredit Open Source, Free Software Foundation, GPL, Linux, etc. The
> semantics are being attacked and it is being contended that the law means
> that the gov't should sell the tech to a "private company" (like, oh I
don't
> know...hmmm....maybe M$) and give them a Monopoly on the
> technology/development. "private company" and "private sector" are two
> entirely different things.
>
> -- or Consult the Oracle Temple of the Magic Chicken
>     http://MoonBughead.com/Oracle/
> Darin
>
>
> on 7/3/01 6:21 PM, Joseph A. Knapka at jknapka at earthlink.net wrote:
>
> > This is a quite from a message in the siliconvalley.com forum
> > on open-source vs commercial software:
> > <URL:
> >
http://forums.siliconvalley.com/msgshow.cfm/msgboard=5968009897410465&msg=49
51
> > 219996565791&page=1&idDispSub=5145094516046185>.
> >
> > Essentially, the argument is that Donald Becker's release under
> > GPL of Ethernet drivers developed with NASA funding is a violation
> > of federal law. Does anyone here know enough about IP law to have
> > an informed opinion about this matter?
> >
> >> | Search | Send to a Friend | Help
> >> << Prev Msg | Next Msg >>
> >>
> >> Author
> >> Message
> >>
> >>
> >> Brett_Glass
> >> 06/28/01 10:31 PM
> >>
> >> RE: RE: The government should not sponsor
> >> GPLed work
> >>
> >> You [Bruce Perens - JAK] write:
> >>
> >>
> >> NASA has sponsored a good deal of [work on Linux].
> >> For example, many of the ethernet drivers by Donald
> >> Becker were sponsored by NASA.
> >>
> >>
> >> If so, it is contrary to Federal law for those drivers to have been
> >> licensed under the GPL, because Federal law requires that the fruits of
> >> NASA's research and development be available for use by the private
> >> sector to develop new products. A vendor that wishes to use the code
> >> might well want to pursue this.
> >
> >
> >
> > -- Joe Knapka
> > "You know how many remote castles there are along the gorges? You
> > can't MOVE for remote castles!" -- Lu Tze re. Uberwald
> > // Linux MM Documentation in progress:
> > // http://home.earthlink.net/~jknapka/linux-mm/vmoutline.html
> > * Evolution is an "unproven theory" in the same sense that gravity is. *
> > --
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body.
> >
>
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