Re: [Bug-cssc] Fwd: GNU CSSC 1.3.1 is released

[James Youngman]

First of all, sorry for the delay in my reply.

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Joerg Schilling
<address@hidden> wrote:
> James Youngman <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> Even if that were true, it still doesn't make a copyright assignment
>> "forbidden by law".   Since I was simply asking if you would be
>> willing to assign the copyright in your change to the CSSC test suite,
>> any potential issue of copyright protection wouldn't be relevant
>> (since had you agreed, you'd be assigning your copyright to the FSF,
>> and so issues of protection of those rights wouldn't really be
>> relevant).
>
> 10 days ago, we has an internal Copyright and OSS workshop for our lawyers
> and developers with Till Jaeger (you should know him as he is the most well
> known lawyer for OSS....). He explained that Copyright assignement is illegal
> in general and in special the way it is done by the FSF.
>
> Given the fact, that I explained this problem to the FSF in 1997 already, it 
> is
> strange to see that it still exists.
>
> BTW: Jaeger mentioned that related to European projects, a wish for a 
> Copyright
> assignement is frequently requested by partners from GB and that this is
> usually a result of missing information rather than by an existing real need.
>
>
>> > If we have been talking abut code written _for_ "CSSC", your wish may be
>> > reasonable. The code I did offer, however has been written for "SCCS" and 
>> > thus
>> > is code that belongs to a different project. If you like to use it in/for 
>> > your
>> > project, you are still welcome.
>>
>> Thank you.   I am unable to use (specifically: incorporate) such code
>> in CSSC without a copyright assignment.  This is why I asked if you
>> would be willing to make such an assignment.
>
> As mentioned, such an assignement is neither needed nor legal. I made you an
> offer and it is up to you whether you make use of it or not.

Unfortunately this is not the case.   This policy is set by the GNU
Project itself.  Therefore I am not in a position to make any
exceptions.

>
> BTW: you should have a look at: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/*
>
> There is plenty of software on this server that does not have a Copyright
> assignement and still a lot in that group that has been taken from my projects
> without even ever asking.

Clearly there are cases where copyright licenses directly permit this,
and therefore there would be no legal requirement to ask (even if it
would have been polite).  However, if there are specific cases where
GNU projects have copied your code without your permission and
contrary to the license of the code, you should probably contact
<address@hidden>.

Thanks,
James.