Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement [LWN.net]

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 11, 2014 0:13 UTC (Wed) by tglx (subscriber, #31301)
In reply to: Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement by dakas
Parent article: Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Sigh.

Contributor licensing agreements are a US centric thing.

I for myself CANNOT assign my copyright to anyone else, simply as it is not possible under the jurisdiction I'm living in. And that's true for a lot of other non US jurisdictions.

So what is FSF actually protecting here?

The right to exclude me from contributing because I'm not an American citizen?

Definitely something which is worth to protect, right?

to post comments

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 11, 2014 9:56 UTC (Wed) by niner (guest, #26151) [Link] (5 responses)

Even if you cannot assign copyright (same as me), you very probably can give an exclusive license to the FSF including all rights. It's a different legal construct, but does have the same effect. Usually judges interpret copyright assignments this way, even if a copyright assignment per se is not allowed by the law. They look at what was the intent of your copyright assignment and interpret it as an exclusive license.

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 11, 2014 12:20 UTC (Wed) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link] (1 responses)

As I understand it, French moral rights law holds certain rights, including the right to refuse permission for changes to the work and the right to retract publication, to be inalienable (can't be waived) and to be non-transferrable (can't be reassigned) except by inheritance. (And given the way a certain German optical media production software suite's maintainer acts, I get the impression German law says some very similar things.)

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 12, 2014 13:28 UTC (Thu) by mstone_ (subscriber, #66309) [Link]

a certain german optical media production software suite's maintainer has his or her own version of reality

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 12, 2014 23:00 UTC (Thu) by tglx (subscriber, #31301) [Link] (2 responses)

And why on earth should I do that?

Just because FSF is defining what freedom means? - No, thanks.

Just for the record, I enforced the GPL several times myself. It's not that hard as MY copyright, and thats all what you need for it, holds up in court. I did enforce it without assigning anything to FSF or someone else. Ironically enough one of the cases was settled with a donation to FSFE :)

I mostly agree with Bradleys analysis. IMNSHO CLAs in any form are simply wrong. Whether it's a full assignment or the workaround of "exclusive licensing" it's simply giving your power into the hands of someone you cannot control.

I'm so not going to do that ever. If FSF decides to cut my freedom to contribute, it's not MY problem, really.

Thanks,

tglx

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 13, 2014 3:19 UTC (Fri) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

I thought the FSF licensed your contributions back to you with unlimited rights (certainly not an exclusive license at least).

Kuhn: Why your project doesn't need a contributor licensing agreement

Posted Jun 19, 2014 5:06 UTC (Thu) by dakas (guest, #88146) [Link]

Whether it's a full assignment or the workaround of "exclusive licensing" it's simply giving your power into the hands of someone you cannot control.

The FSF assignment is a two-sided contract. The FSF is limited in the manner in which it can relicense software and/or design future GPL licenses.

So you have some amount of control.

On the other hand, you will die one day. At the very latest then you will be giving your power into the hands of someone you cannot control. And more likely than not, that person will not care about Free Software as much as the FSF.

Tangentially related, one principal component of current copyright terms is purported to have copyright last long enough that it only stops by the time everybody the author cared about is dead.

But the principal effect is actually a corollary: by the time copyright ceases, any heir caring about the author's work personally instead of as some nice additional income is dead. So when the work passes into the public domain, nobody will be around drumming for it and taking mindshare from still exploitable works.

The FSF has its own agenda, true. It may match yours better than that of your distant heirs. Rvrn if it doesn't: your heirs are not contractually bound.

Think of the copyright assignment not as much as "trusting" the FSF but rather giving it a task on your behalf. They do it in their own way, sure. But others may not do it at all.