Drop the Copyright Assignment requirement for Emacs

[Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> We will continue obtaining copyright assignments
> unless we get legal and practical advice that we can stop.

Legal considerations are important, yes, but there are other
considerations too.  There is real damage being done to Emacs today, by
excluding code and packages that we really should have in either Emacs
core or ELPA.

The question is:
- How to effectively enforce the GPL without actively damaging Emacs?

We have one answer to that, and it's been the same since the 1980's.
Legal experts are supposedly telling us that we need assignments.  But
is that the whole story?

To quote the post by Bradley M. Kuhn from before:

    "I'm the only person in the world who is involved with both Software
    Freedom Conservancy and the FSF, and I've also likely spent more
    time on GPL enforcement than anyone on the planet, so I feel I have
    some authority to speak on that subject." [1]

So he is clearly qualified, no?  And what is _his_ expert opinion?

    "... Conservancy's GPL compliance work has shown that enforcement is
    possible in a multi-copyright-held project.  I do that every single
    day."

In other words, he claims that it is fine, specifically from the
standpoint of GPL enforcement, to be a "multi-copyright-held project".
(In fact, he says later in the post that he prefers that model.)

So we have, at the very least, _conflicting_ advice from the experts.
So who should we listen to?

Well, Bradley M. Kuhn takes a balanced view, and the above paragraph
continues:

    "But, there is no question that the work is easier if the non-profit
    that seeks to enforce holds an /overwhelming majority/ of the
    copyrights." (my emphasis)

Now, this is very interesting.  And it points to a solution:

    1. Allow contributions without assignments.

    2. Actively encourage every contributor to sign the assignment.

This is a very conservative compromise that ensures that we can both
enforce the GPL effectively, _and_ ensure that Emacs prospers.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas

Footnotes:
[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/530239/