Re: Regarding copyright assignment to FSF

[Akib Azmain Turja <akib@disroot.org>]

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Michael Banck <mbanck@gmx.net> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 02:19:12PM +0200, Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide wrote:
>> Michael Banck <mbanck@gmx.net> writes:
>> 
>> > I don't mind that, but I also think the Hurd is not a tactical FSF asset
>> > anymore that needs to be kept under tight control. The FSF has enough
>> > copyright in the Hurd that it can enforce it whenever it likes, even if
>> > other people's copyrighted code (as is already the case with the pfinet
>> 
>> I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
>> 
>> 1. Without copyright assignment of all code involved, enforcement
>>    becomes much harder.
>
> I don't think "much harder" can be quantified in a meaningful way,
> seeing how parts of the Hurd aren't under the FSF copyright at this
> point, anyway.

A real life example is GNU Guix.  There are (probably) more than hundred
copyright holders (ain't I right, Ludo?).  Is it possible enforce the
copyright of that package?  All copyright holders must cooperate to
enforce GPL, which is probably impossible.

>> 2. The Hurt still provides capabilities other OS’es don’t — while
>>    maintaining POSIX compatibility. We’ve seen audacity basically
>>    being taken over by a company in the past months, so the danger of
>>    losing Hurd to proprietarization rather got bigger than smaller.
>
> Nobody proposes that the FSF relicenses the Hurd to a non-copyleft
> license before relinquishing the copyright assignment mandate, so I
> don't see how the Hurd continueing to be under a GPLv2+ license will
> ever be able to be taken proprietary.

When copyright is not enforced, there is no difference between a GPL
licensed and a public domain software.  When a company sees that the
copyright isn't enforced of a GPLed, it can take the program and make it
proprietary.

> I'm not going to respond further on this thread, this is starting to get
> off-topic really quick and if there are further things to be discussed,
> gnu-system-discuss or whatever other mailing list is likely the better
> place.
>
>
> Michael

NOTE: I am not a lawyer.

-- 
Akib Azmain Turja

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