Who has the rights to claim GPL copyright infringement of linux ??

[Simon Josefsson]

Craig Whitmore <lennon at orcon.net.nz> writes:

> On Tue, 2009-08-11 at 08:15 +0200, Jan Claeys wrote:
>> Op dinsdag 11-08-2009 om 16:48 uur [tijdzone +1200], schreef Craig
>> Whitmore:
>> > Someone else is using my ideas/knowledge without following the rules
>> > of the use of the linux kernel.
>> 
>> Ideas & knowledge aren't copyrightable...
>
> But the results from the ideas and knowledge are... (and the result was
> the line of code)

Did you write that line of code?

Anyway, even the FSF uses a limit of around 15 lines of code; quoting
the GNU maintainers manual:

   If a person contributes more than around 15 lines of code and/or text
   that is legally significant for copyright purposes, we need copyright
   papers for that contribution, as described above.

   A change of just a few lines (less than 15 or so) is not legally
   significant for copyright.  A regular series of repeated changes,
   such as renaming a symbol, is not legally significant even if the
   symbol has to be renamed in many places.  Keep in mind, however, that
   a series of minor changes by the same person can add up to a
   significant contribution.  What counts is the total contribution of
   the person; it is irrelevant which parts of it were contributed when.

   Copyright does not cover ideas.  If someone contributes ideas but no
   text, these ideas may be morally significant as contributions, and
   worth giving credit for, but they are not significant for copyright
   purposes.  Likewise, bug reports do not count for copyright purposes.

/Simon