In 2004 Daniel Robbins, the founder of Gentoo Linux, walked away from the project after creating the nonprofit Gentoo Foundation to handle its intellectual property (IP). In a blog post last month, Robbins wondered if he should take back the software, since it didn't appear the foundation was taking care of things. While Robbins didn't follow through on his thought, he raised an interesting question: Can someone convey intellectual property rights and then reclaim them?

Almost immediately after he blogged about it, Robbins wrote the issue off as nothing more than a late-night rant, and disavowed any desire to take back what he had given the foundation. The foundation also helped dampen lingering interest in the story by quickly taking steps to replace Robbins as its president, a position he had held back in the day, and from which he had never formally been removed. That was basically the end of the tale.

But in spite of its brief life, the question remains: if Robbins had really wanted to do so, could he have taken back the property he had given the foundation, regardless of how well or how poorly they treating it?

IP and free software

I asked Richard E. Fontana, counsel for the Software Freedom Law Center, three basic questions about intellectual property in the free software world, based on a hypothetical situation in which I have written and distributed an application, licensed under the GPL, and now wish to transfer my IP to others.

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