From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Yuri Khan Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Please explain the FSF copyright assignment thing Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 02:12:30 +0700 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1499973187 14407 195.159.176.226 (13 Jul 2017 19:13:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 19:13:07 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs developers To: Filipe Silva Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jul 13 21:13:04 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjXo-0003JZ-1m for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 21:13:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33627 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjXt-0000uJ-Hl for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:13:05 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:34809) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjXh-0000sq-HC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:12:54 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjXg-0000E1-LJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:12:53 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-it0-x231.google.com ([2607:f8b0:4001:c0b::231]:38731) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjXg-0000Dl-Gr for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:12:52 -0400 Original-Received: by mail-it0-x231.google.com with SMTP id k192so2441193ith.1 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:12:52 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id :subject:to:cc; bh=USYf1tRn01lTjfGaZ57OErkdpG9xAklbsfByJz6JeZ0=; b=EEw8bD6YGZBS5Um9pJIjpGddmH5UBgyhfynuvw7MeGBI1vJ0a9iUFWqxFfVR7J7SKf 7SKklVyqM1n6ZjoLzgFg5B4t1T/kO0F+59J+w6gHA8Y6sUzvuvgZvY8b0UOjHwfsw0mk yXSDWuLeP1JkWBioRN9BuHb1qyvdeTyseseNTpElKskjk4ujUU4Ew1jXqjmKlp736ke0 /wpGqgI1EjmUJ7wBgHbQlalr2O2vPKCFU6rhdSIfD3Z1Kd0sTuz/16qWrQ9SwUeSdBMq mtftTY02to/bxLq+8YCs8umq2+eptlgLnkwppj3a7aMxs3WXFxsEYnrfCfPDH4NVC6DD WrEg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from :date:message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=USYf1tRn01lTjfGaZ57OErkdpG9xAklbsfByJz6JeZ0=; b=mYzkTH3EcIcVx13jgvz084uDHGHHDZ7IlHMt91adJCh69YMcvfilZWbIRaKvwC8hCx o9BbuNKNCbH93FsXpa/rc+B9q4CGM4YIBdl37T2J2/6z0IqrkiU6d+yrl6UpAXH/SUQF n1F3cu+Jrl15VZ8nTnLQqa+Lt0BeX9CaT3K8uMwZ/TlbwtjrAmsZ0QuSRZPut4kOuCsp lZBKpOh/JTw7o0zgbbpKJjbiSL9PMnItVW4dtzehW9DbXuZKRR/jncQYmFKzyqqJPOsL hR47Uh6zhtKA73ooJJwPTou2qbQc5QRofjCYTFeAsdiH2JUyaaA4pHXaz3BpHP9Y/K4h USkA== X-Gm-Message-State: AIVw112qU398171e3pvnAI0fqB0ySDTfldQ3zZug3lmbs24P2V1slQQi vhaNgWKX0isr23QDworVCPCstwWeOw== X-Received: by 10.36.115.19 with SMTP id y19mr193206itb.109.1499973171925; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:12:51 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.79.128.213 with HTTP; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:12:30 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: X-Google-Sender-Auth: k2nVdEEVtwmYDt9kaVre2nnufCM X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 2607:f8b0:4001:c0b::231 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:216605 Archived-At: On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 12:16 AM, Filipe Silva wrote: > With the recent activity regarding RMS wishing that someone would come up > and write a replacement for magit that could be bundled inside emacs, and > give FSF the whole copyright assignment, I cannot help but be intrigued: > what good do these required copyright assignments do to the free software > community? If you write a package and distribute it under GPL, a malicious user can use your code in a derived work and distribute that under a non-free license, in violation of GPL. If you have assigned copyright to FSF, then FSF can sue that violator and have a probability of winning and forcing them to either publish their improvements under GPL, or stop distributing their derived work. On the other hand, if you hold the copyright, you will probably not have the resources and/or experience to sue, the violator will go unpunished, and may successfully compete with you as far as detracting users from your project. One specific case is if you yourself go evil and decide to stop distributing your package freely and make it non-free. As a copyright holder, you legally can do that. If you are the dominating contributor of your package, many of your users will stay with the new evil you. And minor contributors will probably not sue because see previous paragraph. These things actually happened. Thus, assigning copyright to FSF protects the project against you going evil.