From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Copyright/Distribution questions (Emacs/Orgmode) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:13:25 +0900 Message-ID: <87a9q7eynu.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87ober717z.fsf@gmail.com> <87mwu9iwcp.fsf@gmail.com> <87mwu9fiu0.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87d2v4f5bb.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1363212814 6530 80.91.229.3 (13 Mar 2013 22:13:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:13:34 +0000 (UTC) Cc: kjambunathan@gmail.com, subhan.tindall@rentrakmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Mar 13 23:13:59 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 1UFtvn-0000w3-4X for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:13:55 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:42752 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UFtvQ-00014v-HT for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:13:32 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:38531) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UFtvN-00014n-RO for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:13:30 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UFtvM-0004wc-SW for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:13:29 -0400 Original-Received: from mgmt1.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:60990) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UFtvM-0004wP-IV; Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:13:28 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mgmt1.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9ED383FA06E2; Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:13:25 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 5B0201A3D97; Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:13:25 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta32) "habanero" b0d40183ac79 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 130.158.97.223 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:157826 Archived-At: Richard Stallman writes: > Our normal future assignment contract covers all changes to Emacs. > Whether it is considered a "contribution" or a "fork" is not a > criterion. I think you should ask your lawyer about that. As far as I can see, my 10 line program that calls into Emacs has just as much right to consider itself "The Work" that happens to link to "code from" Emacs as Emacs has to consider my program "a change to Emacs." Do you really think the FSF owns copyright to my init file, not to mention the init files of every contributor with a future assignment on file? Remember, as far as copyright is concerned, Emacs doesn't exist except as a specific collection of copies of a body of expressive content. Which copy of Emacs are you claiming Jambunathan modified? That's a rhetorical question, of course, but I don't see an easy way to answer it to support a claim of "it's assigned as soon as you write it". I stipulate that it should be easy to show that he modified code with copyright held by the FSF -- but was that part of Emacs? Assume for the sake of argument that at the time the permissions notice said "This program is part of Org-mode." It seems to me that the only easy way to assert your claim is to get the author to stipulate that it is a modification of Emacs.