Re: On Contributing To Emacs

[Tim Cross]

Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com> writes:

> Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> But first, I think it is important to note that this is *not* clear-cut.
>> Siddhesh Poyarekar made this point on the Glibc mailing list this
>> summer:
>
> To the FSF it seems to be clear cut, because they are relying on the
> advice of their lawyers to hold up in court.  So I don't think we are
> going to do much to change their minds.
>
>> Second, it is also important to note that lawyers have no formal
>> expertise in how free software projects work or should best be
>> managed.  They have no expertise in assessing the significant
>> drawbacks that this brings to a free software project, and how that
>> should be weighed against the legal advantages they perceive (or not)
>> with having a copyright assignment.
>
> How many drawbacks a free software project might get is moot, if it's
> not (or can't be kept) legally free software.  We should not let some
> vague definition of "drawback" or "weight" interfere.

Agree.

In the same way that lawyers don't have formal experience in how free
software projects work, developers don't have formal experience in how
the legal system and courts work. It is illogical to try and argue that
because lawyers don't understand software projects, we should ignore
their advice on legal matters. We should ignore development/coding
advice from lawyers and ignore legal advice from developers and coders!

In fact, I would go so far as to say many developers make very poor
lawyers. Writing code has a lot to do with conciseness, well defined
logic and unambiguous 'laws'. The legal system and courts are very
different. Much comes down to persuasive arguments from experienced
lawyers, legal precedence, background and perceptions of decision makers
(juries, judges, etc) and even current political and social 'norms' at
the time as well as the ability of those involved to understand the
complexities of the issues (which is often very limited, especially when
it comes to fast moving areas of technology).