From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Christian Egli Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Copyright/Distribution questions (Emacs/Orgmode) Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:09:38 +0100 Organization: Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled Message-ID: <874ngitfh9.fsf__7395.48305650732$1362996921$gmane$org@sbs.ch> References: <87ober717z.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1362996895 18460 80.91.229.3 (11 Mar 2013 10:14:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:14:55 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Mar 11 11:15:20 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UEzlF-0004Z8-Qb for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:15:17 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:38838 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UEzkt-0007Ai-Ju for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:14:55 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:37220) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UEzkp-0007AQ-4D for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:14:53 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UEzkm-0003sD-8O for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:14:51 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:60441) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UEzkm-0003r5-2E for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:14:48 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UEzl2-0004OE-4a for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:15:04 +0100 Original-Received: from alouette.sbs.ch ([194.29.12.218]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:15:04 +0100 Original-Received: from christian.egli by alouette.sbs.ch with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:15:04 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 38 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: alouette.sbs.ch User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:EG9y11qck2pg2/aNOkx7mCt5vLQ= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:157726 Archived-At: Jambunathan K writes: > I would like to withdraw my pleasure in having these files distributed > as part of Org distribution. These files have been published under the GNU GPL[1] which gives everybody the right to modify and redistribute them as long as they comply with the GNU GPL. In other words the current maintainer has every right to include these files in any further release of orgmode. > More specifically, I would like to know how copyright assignment works > for files that are not yet part of Emacs. The copyright assignment is solely for the purpose of having one copyright owner. This helps for legal disputes and to change the license. However it is not needed for redistribution purposes, i.e. it gives you no legal recourse to stop redistribution of these files. Once you have published them under GNU GPL (and you have) everybody (including the current maintainer of orgmode) has the four freedoms that come with the GNU GPL[2] namely > the freedom to use the software for any purpose, > the freedom to change the software to suit your needs, > the freedom to share the software with your friends and neighbors, and > the freedom to share the changes you make. Again IANAL, but then the GNU GPL is pretty clear about this. Hope this helps Christian Footnotes: [1] on mailing lists and in the git repo of orgmode [2] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html -- Christian Egli Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled Grubenstrasse 12, CH-8045 Zürich, Switzerland