Jeff Sturm wrote:
> Out of curiousity, what would you contribute that you wouldn't want to
> assign? There should be a clear boundary between Classpath and your
> SableVM project. Code for the former should benefit any VM project.
I could contribute many small patches to make Classpath robust. I could
also help build a robust security architecture, supporting protection
domains, etc. I could contribute classes that could be reused by other
VMs to implement base class loading functionality, etc.
You have to understand I am very fortunate that UQAM [unlike many other
Universities Canada] does explicitely recognise "contributions to the
collectivity" as part of a professor's task. But, part of this is that
contributions should "reflect on the University". Copyright assignment,
be it to the best non-for-profit organization, does not fit well at all
within my employer's objectives (nor my personal ones, as I am the
Copyright holder, in the current situation). It is a legitimate right
that I have not to give away the Copyright on code I write, while still
distributing it under a GNU license. OK, I won't be able to benefit
from the FSF's legal team to defend my code, but this is my problem, not
the FSF's. So, I don't see why the Classpath project cannot accept
contributions without Copyright assignment.
Now, the GPL allows you to do everything you want (within its freedom
requirements), including forking the project, if you want to add your
code without giving away your Copyright. But, I despise useless effort
splitting, and I am instead suggesting that rules be relaxed, so that
the project can finally pick up some steam. I am not alone thinking
that the project is being hindered by these legal issues.
Also, I maintain my reserves on the current text of the GPL exception.
It is (unless I'm proven wrong) quite too permissive, not requiring
source code distribution.
Etienne
--
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| �tienne M. Gagnon mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Professeur adjoint T�l�phone: (514) 987-3000 poste 8215 |
| Bureau: PK-4930 T�l�copieur: (514) 987-8477 |
| D�partement d'informatique, UQ�M http://www.info.uqam.ca/ |
| Auteur de SableVM http://www.sablevm.org/ |
| et de SableCC http://www.sablecc.org/ |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Etienne M. Gagnon mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Assistant Professor Phone: (514) 987-3000 ext. 8215 |
| Office: PK-4930 Fax: (514) 987-8477 |
| Department of Computer Science, UQAM http://www.info.uqam.ca/ |
| Author of SableVM http://www.sablevm.org/ |
| and SableCC http://www.sablecc.org/ |
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