[Bradford] UK Government Moves To Legislate Against Free Software

[Robert Burrell Donkin]

Major highlights (from a Free Software perspective) of legislation to
be introduced in the Autumn:

* Works published under a pseudonym will cease to be copyrightable
* Unless every contributor to a Free Software product
  * is easily identifiable and contactable
     * then for a small administrative fee the government will issue a
new license for the work under more acceptable terms
  * opts out of a collective rights agreement
     * then a collective rights organisation will be allowed to
collect commercial fee from every user of that software in the UK
* Copyright will not be effectively enforceable unless I pay to have
each and every version registered with a Digital Exchange, which will
then commercial charge fees for use

As a creator of FOSS, this effectively abolishes my rights to license
as pleases me and to limit my liability.

And yes, the government was informed about the potential impact on the
software sector

Apparently my "moral rights" will be not be effected by this change
since those who profit from my work will have to retain some form of
attribution

Robert