Re: Regarding copyright assignment to FSF

[Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide]

Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> writes:

> Upgrading the GPLv2-only code might be dificult if multiple people hold
> the copyright, so for the GPLv2-only code, it might be a good idea to still
> require copyright assignment.

When we did it for Mercurial, going from GPLv2 only to or later took
years and a *lot* of work. That’s why I consider copyright assignment to
the FSF as a good idea. They still get restricted to only use that to
further Free Software (if they violate that, the assignment loses the
reliablility that they need).

>> Even if you do keep it yourself, it makes it more difficult for anyone to 
>> enforce
>> the GPL for that project.
>
> A fair point, though I don't know how accurate that is.

From what I read, it’s the most important point, because the first
answer the other sides lawyers always give is „you’re not authorized by
*all* authors to enforce the GPL, so you lose.“

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

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