legal question

[AragonX]

<quote who="Paul Howarth">
> AragonX wrote:
>   Well, INAL, but you can't copywright modifications made to GPLed
> software.
>
> Of course you can. Copyright is what underpins the GPL. The Linux
> kernel, for instance, contains code copyrighted by a wide variety of
> people. The copyright for (most of) the IP filtering code for instance
> is held by members of the netfilter team, and that's what enables them
> to go after companies breaching their copyright by including netfilter
> code in their products without offering to supply the source code.
>
> See: http://gpl-violations.org/about.html#history
>
> You own the copyright to the modifications you make, unless you assign
> it elsewhere.

Ah yes, very true.  What I was meaning to say was that the company you
work for cannot take and sell GPLed software that you modify (An idea a
few companies I had worked for came up with and thus my reason for
mentioning it).  That's what I get for trying to email with a cranky baby
on my lap.

Here is an excerpt from the GPL license found at:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

"2.  You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such
modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that
you also meet all of these conditions:

    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part
thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties
under the terms of this License.

    c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when
run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use
in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement
including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is
no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that
users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling
the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the
Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an
announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print
an announcement.) "