[dmd-internals] DMD copyright assignment

Leandro Lucarella via dmd-internals dmd-internals at puremagic.com
Tue Jun 24 16:15:03 PDT 2014


Andrei Alexandrescu, el 24 de June a las 15:55 me escribiste:
> On 6/24/14, 3:32 PM, Leandro Lucarella via dmd-internals wrote:
> >If the copyright assignment requirement were well grounded, then maybe
> >it would be justified, but to require it just based on a potential
> >unknown and extremely unlikely fear seems pointless.
> 
> What seems pointless to me is this long and protracted discussion
> around... around what? What or whom are we talking about protecting
> here? It's not a practical matter, and it's not a matter of
> principles. If protecting the copyright of one's work is high on
> one's list of priorities, OSS is not the best place to be.

But your position is contradictory. If you want to protect the software
to keep being free, then you need a proper organization, not a private
company, because as I said, same as people can disappear or change their
mind (yeah, even after 14 years), then companies or Gods like Walter
could too. If you are offering false protection at the price of
bureaucracy for contributors (is not about not wanting to cede the
rights ONLY), it doesn't sound very appealing.

This is why any large groups organize themselves in institutions that
doesn't rely on individuals and have well defined constitutions or
missions.

> Crap has happened before, among reasonable people, and in ways that
> had not been predicted.

Exactly, so why crap couldn't happen with Walter or Digital Mars?

> We don't have money. We don't have lawyers.
> We don't want to spend time analyzing, projecting, estimating, or
> speculating. We want to keep things simple and save everybody
> involved complications while keeping everything as open as possible.

Then forget about copyright assignment, is an unneeded and expensive
hassle :)

> This very discussion is a huge waste of time wanking over nothing.
> What the heck are we even _talking_ about, folks?

Apparently requiring copyright assignment for any contribution.
Honestly, I think I will have a hard time convincing my bosses to cede
their  right over the code they are paying me to produce. VERY hard to
sell.

-- 
Leandro Lucarella (AKA luca)                     http://llucax.com.ar/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Y nosotros? Y nosotros qué tenemos, eh? Yo te pregunto qué tenemos? El
kani kama es extranjero y los picles, los picles ya no son nuestros...
Tenemos el 'ulce de leche, que es argentino y machazo, como un pampeano
en su rancho. Tenemos el clásico, el colonial y el repostero y en
Santiago del Estero, se lo comen a pan lactal.


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