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: The copyright issue Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:15:26 +0900 Message-ID: <87r5idqmqp.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <19546.32875.515000.117266@gargle.gargle.HOWL> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1281026662 1017 80.91.229.12 (5 Aug 2010 16:44:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2010 16:44:22 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Uday S Reddy Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Aug 05 18:44:20 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 1Oh3YE-0006mc-5U for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:44:14 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:32989 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Oh3Y7-0001EH-BA for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:44:07 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=35979 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Oh2Zo-0002Vd-HJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:41:53 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Oh2Zi-0006Qy-Ul for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:41:48 -0400 Original-Received: from mtps02.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.224]:60142) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Oh2Zi-0006OC-Di for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:41:42 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps02.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8ACB68211; Thu, 5 Aug 2010 21:16:16 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 3A1761A46B2; Thu, 5 Aug 2010 21:15:26 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <19546.32875.515000.117266@gargle.gargle.HOWL> X-Mailer: VM 8.0.12-devo-585 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:128297 Archived-At: Uday S Reddy writes: > But it seems that the FSF copyright policy has become a bugbear, which > might not have been the original intention. The effects that the policy has were the original intention, at least in some sense. > The current situation is highly asymmetric. Anybody, including a > private corporation, can use the FSF codebase to develop their > variants, Yes. That's called "software freedom", and this effect was intended for sure. > but Gnu Emacs can't use their enhancements to enrich itself. Enrichment is not the goal here. Software freedom is. In cases where GNU Emacs refuses code because it doesn't own it, that's a deliberate choice made in the interest of software freedom. > So, Gnu ends up lagging behind and, perhaps in cases like Aquamacs, > not even being able to enter the territory. Aquamacs has no legal problems AFAIK, and for all I know David has already assigned that code to the FSF. (The point is the *possibility*, not whether he's actually done so.) GNU just doesn't want that code in Emacs until the corresponding features are available on free systems. > Can't we find a way out of this dilemma? A way out of most of the "dilemma" has existed for 15 years. Today it is called XEmacs, and there are other alternative paths as well. Most of the people here simply don't find those roads acceptable. In other words, "Problem? What problem?" And-I-I-took-the-one-less-traveled-by-ly y'rs,