Re: Effect of transfer of copyright on free software licenses?

[Hyman Rosen]

Tim Smith wrote:
> I wonder how many open source projects provide a written instrument 
> signed by the copyright owner?

The GPL <http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html> says
    All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of
    copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated
    conditions are met.

A court would be presented with evidence that it is industry practice
to distribute under such licenses without signatures, and given the
statement of irrevocable grant, would find that the nonexclusive
license prevails.