Unsure of GPL privilege to distribute

[Stephan]

Hello legal list,

Please advise if my questions should go to the tech list or some
other list.

In europe, at which point is GPL software considered 'distributed'?
I would like to distribute a GPL software title to everybody, and
am unsure that I'm allowed to do so. It seems to me that if this
software was ever 'distributed', then I'm allowed to distribute it.

What is the proper place to ask basic legal questions regarding
GPL licensing and Copyright ownership for software in europe?

Specific details of my case (partly hypothetical and partly real)
are below.

Regards,
Stephan

---- Full details of my questions ----

Original situation
------------------
A software engineer (author) who works at a company develops a software
application. This author writes 'Copyright 2006 Company name' on one
line and 'Copyright 2006 Author name' on the next line of each source
file. Each source file references the GPL v2, and a 'license.txt' file
states that the GPL v2 applies. He made the copyright and license
decisions himself, after asking his boss for directions and receiving
no response.

Software operation
------------------
The source files were stored in a company internal CVS repository
where ten other coworkers had access. The author compiled the source
files and copied the resulting binaries to several company owned
computers for testing and then for production use.

Current situation
-----------------
The author was layed off and is now unemployed. Because he wrote some
of the sofware from home, he still has access to the source files. He
has no documents that previously authorized him to place copyright
notices in the software or place the software under the GPL v2.

Wish
----
The author would like to now distribute the GPL software (either
source files or binaries or both.) He would like to distribute
it to anybody in the world without fearing a lawsuit (copyright,
licensing, intellectual property, trade secrets?) from his old
company who may wish to do him harm.

Questions
---------
1. The software contains one organizational 'Copyright Company name'
   copyright and one personal 'Copyright Author name' copyright to
   protect the life of the software. Who owns the software now that
   the author no longer works at the company?

2. Assume that due to contractual text the author does not own
   the software and rather the company owns it entirely. May
   the author distribute the software now anyways?

3. It seems that the key to answering #2 is determining if the
   software was 'distributed' under the terms of the GPL v2. How
   can the author know if the software he wrote was 'distributed'?

4. If it comes to a civil lawsuit in the U.S. or europe, which
   party has the burden of proving the other party wrong?

5. Is there any chance of a criminal lawsuit in the U.S. or europe
   if the author distributes the software?