Re: Emacs CLA requirement

[Phil Sainty]

On 2021-06-17 16:54, David Masterson wrote:
> > If packages are interested in making it in-tree, I think they should
> > ask for FSF copyright assignment from the beginning.  Otherwise they
> > should just stay out, IMO.
>
> Problem is do they know "at the beginning" that this is what they want?
> Many packages begin life as an itch that then develop into something
> more than expected.

I think this happens quite a lot.  I've even seen authors responding
that their package isn't "worthy" of being in GNU ELPA, when I thought
it was clear that it had the potential to develop into something really
useful.  So it's certainly the case that some people feel they needn't
worry about copyright (or aren't aware of the issues), accept arbitrary
contributions, and after a while it's yet another really nice package
that can't make Emacs better out-of-the-box.

There was a long discussion in April-June last year:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2020-04/msg01421.html


-Phil