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: The copyright issue Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:02:30 +0900 Message-ID: <87lj8d6bl5.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <19546.32875.515000.117266@gargle.gargle.HOWL> <19549.44879.848292.639521@rgr.rgrjr.com> <19549.49818.270000.981978@gargle.gargle.HOWL> <19549.61887.613440.141458@rgr.rgrjr.com> <8762zkl259.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87aaow8a0p.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <87y6cgjg45.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1281499463 27929 80.91.229.12 (11 Aug 2010 04:04:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:04:23 +0000 (UTC) Cc: dak@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Aug 11 06:04:22 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Oj2Y9-0004ql-Op for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:04:22 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:48894 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Oj2Y9-0006By-4Q for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:04:21 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=40327 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Oj2Y3-00068f-2g for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:04:16 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Oj2Y1-0002dw-W6 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:04:14 -0400 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:36025) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Oj2Y0-0002dI-FF; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:04:12 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9245F1537B3; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:04:08 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 357721A46B1; Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:02:31 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta29) "garbanzo" ed3b274cc037 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:128558 Archived-At: Richard Stallman writes: > Nope. It makes him liable to be sued by the FSF for legal > expenses, and maybe the cost of ripping out the code, if the > FSF *loses* (or maybe, if it determines in good faith that it's > going to lose and settles out of court). > I can't see why we would ever want to sue a contributor even if he > had lied to us about he origin of the code. We would simply take > it out. Exactly. So the FSF (more precisely, the project) ends up bearing the cost in any case. > However, the assignments encourage users to think about the > question, making it much less likely that we will have any problem. Maybe. That assumes contributors understand under what conditions code they author outside of the workplace using their own resources might not be theirs. I know I didn't when I signed, although later research showed it isn't a problem for me. I think what really causes people to think about it is when they hand the disclaimer to their boss and the boss says "I'll have to run this past corporate legal."