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: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:53:07 +0900 Message-ID: <87wqtef68c.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87ober717z.fsf@gmail.com> <513D7565.3080507@online.de> <1362984096.1644.1.camel@german-desktop> <513D89DE.5070302@online.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1363006410 12805 80.91.229.3 (11 Mar 2013 12:53:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:53:30 +0000 (UTC) Cc: =?utf-8?Q?Germ=C3=A1n_=5C=22A=2E_Arias=5C=22?= , Stefan Monnier , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Andreas =?utf-8?Q?R=C3=B6hler?= Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Mar 11 13:53:54 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 1UF2Eh-0003VW-4s for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:53:51 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:58565 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UF2EL-0003K7-28 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:53:29 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:45399) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UF2EG-0003Ju-5n for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:53:26 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UF2EA-0002Wb-JN for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:53:24 -0400 Original-Received: from mgmt1.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:44138) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UF2EA-0002UG-8K for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:53:18 -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 6C2E33FA08C5; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:53:10 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 6782B11F0B9; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:53:09 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <513D89DE.5070302@online.de> 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:157728 Archived-At: Andreas R=C3=B6hler writes: > Anyway, stressing the need of copyright assignment might spread the > illusion, a free software project might require that procedure in > order to distribute code. What the case at stake seems to > demonstrate so far. Please, Andreas, you are completely off-base. It is well-known that the assignment policy is purely a legal strategy recommended by some of the best lawyers in the business, and that's all. It has nothing to do with software freedom except that it strengthens the FSF's ability to enforce its copyright in Emacs, which is the only legal tool it has for protecting Emacs' freedom.[1] It's true that Emacs' hardline "no assignment, no commit" policy leaves it unable to incorporate some useful code, but that's always been true, and accepted as a necessary evil. AFAICT misconceptions to the contrary are not widespread, especially now that many projects are turning to assignment policies (especially in the wake of the "SCO v. Linux" fiasco). Footnotes:=20 [1] It also allows the FSF to change licenses when necessary, a prominent example being fixing the "unchangeable anonymous Emacs doc license" bug by changing the license of the manual to the FDL, something which XEmacs cannot easily do for its own manual due to multiple ownership (most of whom dislike the FDL). But that is not necessary to software freedom, although it arguably improves it.