Re: Drop the Copyright Assignment requirement for Emacs

[João Távora]

On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 7:14 AM Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote:

> That's what I thought, but this means GNU ELPA is just a special
> branch of Emacs,

Part of it is, kind of, since it distributes the very same files.
Another part isn't really.

> and apart of the above, all the other requirements
> and code conventions should be identical, so that we could move
> packages between the core and ELPA at will.

That was my impression initially too.  But in practice it evolved to
a place for the "not quite ready for prime-time" cases: i.e. we
let most everything in, provided they have copyright and adhere
to some minimal conventions.  So we don't uphold the same
standard there, never did, I think.  Nowadays, I see ELPA as a
staging place for packages to come in, eventually make it into core
_and_ back into ELPA as :core packages.

Eglot, the LSP package, is in that situation: it is in ELPA but is
developed  on Github for now and ,there it has gathered contributors
whom I ask for copyright assignments, GNU-style commits, etc.
Soon, we'll discuss its integration into the core, and if it works out,
I'll want to keep it in GNU ELPA as a :core packge.  In the meantime,
Emacs will have gained 3-4 Eglot regulars as new core Emacs
contributors.

How can it not "work out"? Well, this list might decide it doesn't
have the technical merits yet or, more seriously, I messed up
and forgot to require copyright for a significant contribution. I
will often only ask if the contributor has started the process and
let the commit go in if he confirms.  But I don't double-check
(I should, of course, and that's why it should be easier to do).

I believe, Yasnippet, now maintained by Noam Postavski, is in a
similar situation. It has all the copyright in order, but since some
parts of it which are still a bit gory, it's better not import it into core
until they are resolved.

FWIW, I don't fully agree with Stefan: we should not require
copyright assignment for inclusion in GNU ELPA if that introduces
needless friction, but we should require of authors, maintainers or
proponents that they make an effort to track down the contributors
and solve this, otherwise it makes no sense for it to be there.

Finally, above practical aspects, assigning copyright is declaring
support for an idea larger than the FSF itself.  It's a political
declaration.  I think the reason some people take issue with it
is seeing their names vanish from the first few lines of the source
file, and be replaced by something they don't agree with, or
don't understand.

João