Re: Non-gcc releases

[Etienne Gagnon <gagnon dot etienne_m at uqam dot ca>]

Anthony Green wrote:
> This is a very generous proposal - so thank you.  However, I would like
> to see a plan that actually addresses my primary concern - and that it
> the copyright assignment issue.  I think the two issues (copright and
> independent releases) are related, so I'd really like to tackle both at
> once.

Why do you want copyright assignment in the first place?

An example situation: as a Canadian [;-)], I do not wish giving away
my copyright to a non-Canadian institution, regardless of the nobility of
its causes.  In Canada, we have Copyright laws that I know, and a court
system in which I have much confidence.  I can't say that I know enough
about foreign laws and court systems to give away my code to a foreign
entity.  In addition, if I ever needed to enforce my copyright on some work,
I have a University to back me.  I personally have no compelling reason
to give my code away, and I do not ask my students to give me their code
either.  So, I can understand the reluctance of any contributor to give
away his code.

From your message, I deduce that you are facing one old contributor that
does not want to assign his code to FSF.  This is my biggest problem with
copyright assignment: it often drives away potential contributors, and
ends up slowing a project.

Also, as far as I know, some people such as Linus Torvalds have managed
quite well without asking for copyright assignment.

> What is your primary concern with copyright assignment?

I would reverse the question and answer: Given the permissiveness of the
current license, I see no compelling reason to require copyright assignment
on contributions to libffi.

Etienne

--
Etienne M. Gagnon, Ph.D.             http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM:                                       http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC:                                       http://www.sablecc.org/