On 07.09-15:15, Jakob Petsovits wrote: [ ... ]
No, it doesn't transfer ownership. It grants you a license to use, modify and redistribute the code, but it doesn't transfer ownership. You'll most likely need a copyright holder to sue violators.
ownership was a badly chosen term, apologies, it transfers equal rights of use to all parties. does than mean in the death or absence of a copyright holder that the GPL may be, essentiall, ignored? this seems problematic. in the case of copyright i understand rights transfer to the next of kin but with free software it seems there is little incentive for next of kin to pursue issues of copyright. furthermore, in the absence of *all* copright holders the right to challange may also be brought into question. is anyone aware of a case in point?