From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Filipe Silva Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Please explain the FSF copyright assignment thing Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 16:23:24 -0300 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="001a113bd054ceb0be055437dd94" X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1499973819 4900 195.159.176.226 (13 Jul 2017 19:23:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 19:23:39 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs developers To: Yuri Khan Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jul 13 21:23:36 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 1dVjhy-0000mj-MI for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 21:23:30 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33702 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVji4-0007vH-6d for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:23:36 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:39044) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjhv-0007uN-2F for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:23:28 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjht-0006Bv-W7 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:23:27 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-oi0-x22b.google.com ([2607:f8b0:4003:c06::22b]:34732) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dVjht-0006BZ-Og for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:23:25 -0400 Original-Received: by mail-oi0-x22b.google.com with SMTP id l130so54677522oib.1 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:23:25 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=/eWqkFrlqwgNZwtYnQ6k0cWUMA8+oNwhdydKEQh6/LU=; b=lANYY37nv/agm1xUeMUjSZ0uFW0m9N/2X3OGkthNUDezLDuaNfRFSpJNu82vdRWUOP 0yva4ZqkcYseUrOzJopaUAQU+vyvdir+26skW4CMNj0fHghB3a6WdgH9rNnGj8fPWpY3 JBminyXeP4ECIBBEsH6PAW8FHK4rmHW18yJ7lv1/PipkhfjkmJaOP5mPpI2DWEZqJLVW y75y8BCRoGaKhLnCLrVIbiln8dvhPI9lR56J70axjKKaOQd9+aG8YO4B2qziMgc0qdY+ YxE7ZASptqOKHTIPUuBfxHO8uOTrmwUvgk5MMg9hBk5Ioav2lOkpaKL3bOkoinLFj2hf wMNg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=/eWqkFrlqwgNZwtYnQ6k0cWUMA8+oNwhdydKEQh6/LU=; b=YAaUM8z3jW9AMATjl8oO738itftD04JTHGpgC1X2mMMTnodzYm8OAE9eNtibM+yaMl qciFEHjqMSJPKka9crspIEshoa7lZ+NKpOlDbIdkWnqFVPiAi+lk1OsRk9YaBzEpVRi7 LOzA1FelQ6OIy3jp3OHh+N2ibrATX7OsNLfI0vAEf7q6NN5ViwcZc+GxVNCgHfnfvkrg nxuoLcNNEheR4yYokmEzhpQdrxqAvCtSQ+MbAS/jIjDCccArOOPQD7obeV4CYix/2FTd ozdXZVn1BP+LV9PyqiTlFT/Y9AWrqSW7QEZNgu+HPvWeMJg88BRVpzKo5Io1PNf2nbPQ Yyzw== X-Gm-Message-State: AIVw110nxaTjCSQs7oi9xBvI+on8BvFWCw+0lR3dq4tADcoRAD8mhC/3 FQJx8x1AaaYTr2s8YF1XcyyWPGWOUQ== X-Received: by 10.202.66.4 with SMTP id p4mr3860526oia.114.1499973804795; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:23:24 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.182.85.69 with HTTP; Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:23:24 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 2607:f8b0:4003:c06::22b 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:216608 Archived-At: --001a113bd054ceb0be055437dd94 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Ok, now I finally understand. but this must be explained in a clear, visible way. This is not at all clear, anywhere. What a sad state of affairs we are in regarding these legal aspects. Thank you. On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 4:12 PM, Yuri Khan wrote: > 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. > --001a113bd054ceb0be055437dd94 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Ok, now I finally understand. =C2=A0

but this must be explained in a clear, visible way.= This is not at all clear, anywhere.=C2=A0

What a sad state of affairs we are in regarding these legal aspects.

Thank you.=C2=A0

On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 4:1= 2 PM, Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 12:16 AM,= Filipe Silva <filipe.silva@gm= ail.com> 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 intrigue= d:
> what good do these required copyright assignments do to the free softw= are
> 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 evi= l.

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