Hi, I have made my views on licenses clear elsewhere, so I'll respect Brian et al and not jump into it here. But, copyright assignment... that's different.
> copyright assignment. The FSF has an explanation of why they require > copyright assignment[1], so it's not just big corporations who want > copyright assignment. > > [1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html I think people confuse copyright assignment with licensing. (That's an ambiguous statement, but so is the subject matter.) Let me use MySQL as an example. If I contribute code to MySQL under the terms they require, I'm not just giving them the right to protect the code's freedom, as mentioned in the referenced link. It's exactly the opposite. I'm doing so with foreknowledge that they intend to turn around and sell the code to others in a non-Free form. And when I write code and release it as Free Software, I don't feel great about giving away important protections so someone else can make it non-Free. Let me quote another FSF link: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/pragmatic.html says "Sometimes I work on free software, and sometimes I work on proprietary software—but when I work on proprietary software, I expect to get paid." In case an analogy will help, consider this: I invite my friend for dinner. I tell him I'll cook and clean and we can relax by the fire afterwards, he doesn't need to bring anything. He says "I'll only come for dinner if you give me something in exchange." What?? This is beyond simple copyright assignment for purposes of protecting Freedom. It's copyright assignment for purposes of being able to strip out Freedom. There's no difference in the mechanism (copyright assignment) but I know there's a difference in what'll be done with the code. Some people's goal is widest adoption and greatest compatibility; others care more about freedom and fairness. Baron _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~drizzle-discuss Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~drizzle-discuss More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
