From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
To: Noah Lavine <noah.b.lavine@gmail.com>
Cc: guile-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Do you recognize these modules?
Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 16:12:11 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <877gweua10.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CA+U71=P2by7VASOTCEC_+AjxgBTg8v9GQSE_T=76mZhM8kTWMg@mail.gmail.com> (Noah Lavine's message of "Mon, 14 May 2012 09:59:26 -0400")
Noah Lavine <noah.b.lavine@gmail.com> writes:
>>> Luckily, I haven't actually started the rewrite, because I also have
>>> limited time to work on this. So I'm very glad to hear that you're
>>> interested in transfering them. If you are the only author of the
>>> pieces, then I think the transfer is simple - you put the FSF
>>> copyright notice at the top, and you're done.
>>
>> Uh no. You can't just assign copyright to somebody without asking them,
>> much like you can't just assign parentship to somebody without asking
>> them.
>
> Yes, this was specific to this situation, because I thought that he
> had already signed a copyright assignment form. I don't mean this as a
> general statement of when you can make changes to Guile.
>
>> Since Thien-Thi Nguyen assigned copyright to GOOPS and general changes
>> to future changes to GUILE to the FSF in 2000 already, it is more or
>> less a matter of him checking in the changes or otherwise contributing
>> them in a manner making clear that the contribution is intentional.
>> Matching copyright headers are obviously a good indicator for that.
>
> Ah, so he would have to either check them in himself or send them as
> patches to the list, correct? (In addition to the assignment.)
The assignment is the formal part. The rest is just a matter of making
sure that "but I never intended you to take _that_" does not come up.
So it is always safer if a contributor _gives_ stuff himself (or
designates them) rather than if someone else _takes_ it from him on the
assumption that this was intended to be taken.
Like if you have a contract for buying a horse. If you take it from the
barn and later the owner says "You took the halter! I did not sell the
halter!" that's a worse situation to be in rather than if he handed you
the horse including halter, even though the halter is not in the
contract.
Frankly, in the given situation I should be rather surprised if there
was potential for misunderstandings. It does look like both the intent
to contribute as well as the compass of the contribution are quite
well-understood.
--
David Kastrup
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-05-14 14:12 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-05-01 22:26 Do you recognize these modules? Noah Lavine
2012-05-01 23:22 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2012-05-02 15:26 ` Noah Lavine
2012-05-14 8:04 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2012-05-14 10:52 ` Noah Lavine
2012-05-14 12:59 ` David Kastrup
2012-05-14 13:59 ` Noah Lavine
2012-05-14 14:12 ` David Kastrup [this message]
2012-05-14 12:44 ` Ludovic Courtès
2012-05-14 17:00 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2012-05-14 17:30 ` Noah Lavine
2012-05-15 20:14 ` Andy Wingo
2012-05-25 8:53 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2012-05-25 12:48 ` Andy Wingo
2012-05-25 17:02 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2012-07-11 3:02 ` Noah Lavine
2012-07-11 7:21 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2012-07-11 10:44 ` Andy Wingo
2012-07-11 15:20 ` Noah Lavine
2012-07-11 17:59 ` Noah Lavine
2012-08-25 22:27 ` Noah Lavine
2012-08-26 20:47 ` Ludovic Courtès
2013-03-23 10:36 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
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