Re: [OT] Re: configure script

[David Masterson <dmaster@synopsys.com>]

>>>>> David Kastrup writes:

> The people involved in the GNU project don't get a say about this.
> I had an exchange with RMS just recently in letters to lwn.net where
> I tried to get him to tell me just who constitutes the GNU project
> so that one could ask their opinion.

> The turnout: nobody constitutes the GNU project.  People
> contributing don't have a voice.  The voice of the GNU project is
> Richard Stallman, and when he talks as "we" when talking about the
> GNU project, he is not speaking on behalf of any persons.

> So it is not his position that the people working on the GNU project
> have a say on the naming issue.  It is, however, by virtue of their
> work that _he_ has a say on this issue.

> Make of this what you will.

I, of course, was not privy to your exchange with RMS, so I can only
guess the precise statements that were made.  I wonder, however, if
another interpretation might've been that people come and go so
quickly in the "GNU project" that there would be no way to "ask their
opinion".  Therefore, the FSF (and RMS), as the guiding influence and
holders of the copyright assignments, must act as custodians of the
project and attempt to express the wishes of the project.  Presumably,
people contributing code to the project know and understand this when
they copyleft their code.  Or they would be attempting to take back
their contribution.

-- 
David Masterson                David DOT Masterson AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA