On 06/25/2010 01:09 AM, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote: Assuming the copyright holder changes it, it becomes yet another BSD variant. That specific phrase has a somewhat interesting legal history: Prior to the Berne Convention, the phrase was required as a result of the Buenos Aires Convention of 1910 which mandated that some statement of reservation of rights be made in order to secure protection in signatory countries of the convention. It was required to add the phrase as a written notice that all rights granted under existing copyright law (such as the right to publish a work within a specific area) were retained by the copyright holder and that legal action might be taken against infringement. Basically, at one point in time, if you didn't "reserve all rights", specifically those provided by copyright law, then you might have run the risk that those rights would be perceived to be waived. Thus, it became legal boilerplate, and everyone just started using it, even though it is no longer necessary, or even useful (because every country that was a member to the 1910 Buenos Aires Convention is now also a member of the Berne Convention (notably, the US did not join until 1988). So, does it make any difference at all in how that license is interpreted? IMHO, no, as the license would have the same meaning even if the "All Rights Reserved" line was removed entirely. ~spot