Handling copyright change gracefully

[Matthew P. Barnson]

I need to make a quick change before I check in further changes to the
tree.  Dave, you'll probably want to archive this somewhere so that
copyright of the Guide isn't stuck in legal limbo at any point.

By my verifiable digital signature attached to this message, I assign
copyright of "The Bugzilla Guide" to "The Bugzilla Team".  To that end,
I am making a small change on the "about.xml" page to reflect this
change as it was earlier an invariant section according to the GNU Free
Documentation License.

Copyright will now read "This document is copyright (c) 2000, 2001,
2002, 2003 Matthew P. Barnson.  Copyright (c) 2004 The Bugzilla Team."

"The Bugzilla Team" may continue to maintain copyright indefinitely from
2004 on.  I recognize "The Bugzilla Team" to be headed by, and
responsible to, Dave Miller, also known as JustDave.  He's a benevolent
dictator, and will, I'm sure, see that the continuing license terms of
the document are honored and remain copy-left.

If nobody objects to this change in copyright language, I'll commit it
shortly to CVS.

The main reason for this change is that 2.17's assignment of copyright
"to the various contributors" is not a legal standing any different than
public domain, and hopelessly muddled and useless.  Through 2.16 and the
early 2.17 development cycle, the copyright was in my name, and
continuing submissions also came under that copyright (since
modification of copyright was specifically precluded by the terms of
the license).  I'm aiming to correct that with this little statement.
Since it was my copyright that is now "The Bugzilla Team"'s (ergo:
Dave), he and the team are free to change the license if necessary for
those portions I've contributed.

My thought is that there should be a brief period available for
contributors to 2.17 to object to license changes, and if any do, those
portions removed.  Then change as you like.

I'll wait for a couple of days for any objections to this correction.
If there are none, I'll commit it.  Thanks.

Please note, though, that changing copyright is not allowed under the
current license terms of the document.  I'd prefer my 2000-2003
copyright remain on the document in case someone is found to have copied
in violation of license during those years.

-- 
Matthew P. Barnson
- - - -
Thought for the moment:
Forms follow function, and often obliterate it.
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