emacs-orgmode@gnu.org archives
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
From: tftorrey@tftorrey.com (T.F. Torrey)
To: Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org, carsten.dominik@gmail.com
Subject: Re: ox-html.el removal
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:11:45 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <8738w1itmm.fsf@lapcat.tftorrey.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87txohkfip.fsf@gmail.com> (message from Jambunathan K on Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:03:34 +0530)

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> Meanwhile, someone should fix up the FSF assignment notice on those
> files.  As far as I am concerned, it is a routine housekeeping thing and
> hasn't taken effect.  I am not assigning any copyright to FSF.

Section 1a of the copyright assignment agreement is very specific:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE:
  1.(a) Developer hereby agrees to assign and does hereby assign to FSF
Developer's copyright in changes and/or enhancements to the suite of
programs known as EMACS (herein called the Program), including any
accompanying documentation files and supporting files as well as the
actual program code. These changes and/or enhancements are herein called
the Works.
#+END_QUOTE:

As a signed contributor, you have already assigned copyright of your
"changes and/or enhancements" to Emacs to the FSF (and therefore to this
community).  The agreement does not limit the assignment to those that
land in an Emacs release, or those you don't change your mind about, or
anything like that.  Any changes and/or enhancements to Emacs became
property of the FSF from the moment you wrote them.

Because you are not the copyright holder, it isn't even your prerogative
to decide which license the code is released under.  It happens to be
GPL, but the code is licensed by the copyright holder, which is the FSF,
not you.

Even listing you as an author in the file is a courtesy, not an
obligation.

Furthermore, any future code you might write concerning Org is also
automatically property of the FSF, and by extension this community.  You
have no rights to it, moral or otherwise.

#+BEGIN_QUOTE:
(b) The assignment of par. 1(a) above applies to all past and future
works of Developer that constitute changes and enhancements to the
Program.
#+END_QUOTE:

With the copyright assignment in place, there is nothing to "clear up"
for the next release of Emacs.  The FSF owns the code.  You gave it to
them for "$1 and other good and valuable consideration".

There is no way to change these terms for code you have already written,
unless you can convince the FSF to assign the copyright back to you, or
win the rights through legal action, neither of which sound fruitful.

If you are unhappy granting the copyright to your future Org code to the
FSF, your only recourse is to terminate your agreement with the FSF.  I
don't precisely know how that would be done, given that the copyright
assignment document makes no provision for its cancellation, but a
simple, formal notice of termination of the agreement might suffice,
even if made only to this list, which is operated by the FSF and managed
by its representatives.

Also, if you genuinely believe that anyone (including you) has a claim
to the rights to the Emacs code you have written, Section 2 of the
copyright assignment requires you to notify them:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE:
2. Developer will report occasionally, on Developer's
initiative and whenever requested by FSF, the changes and/or
enhancements which are covered by this contract, and (to the extent
known to Developer) any outstanding rights, or claims of rights, of any
person, that might be adverse to the rights of Developer or FSF or to
the purpose of this contract.
#+END_QUOTE:

Finally, this is only my understanding of the copyright assignment, but
the terms seem straightforward and clear.  If there really is
uncertainty among the developers here about what the copyright
assignment means, we should get clarification from RMS about the intent
or FSF legal about its legal implications before it leads to a lot of
hurt feelings (or worse).

All the best,
Terry
-- 
T.F. Torrey

  parent reply	other threads:[~2013-03-11 20:12 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2013-03-10 15:22 ox-html.el removal Jambunathan K
2013-03-10 18:55 ` Detlef Steuer
2013-03-10 19:24   ` Andreas Röhler
2013-03-10 19:30   ` Christopher Schmidt
2013-03-10 20:37     ` Thomas S. Dye
2013-03-11  0:38     ` Alan L Tyree
2013-03-11  4:08     ` Jambunathan K
2013-03-11  5:39       ` Thomas S. Dye
2013-03-11  8:58       ` Carsten Dominik
2013-03-11 13:57         ` Jay Kerns
2013-03-11 15:55           ` Bastien
2013-03-11 17:33         ` Jambunathan K
2013-03-11 17:57           ` Eric Schulte
2013-03-11 20:11           ` T.F. Torrey [this message]
2013-03-11 22:32             ` Jonathan Leech-Pepin
2013-03-11  7:11 ` Achim Gratz
2013-03-11  8:11   ` Jay Kerns
2013-03-11 17:52     ` Jambunathan K
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2013-03-11 16:33 Rustom Mody

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

  List information: https://www.orgmode.org/

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=8738w1itmm.fsf@lapcat.tftorrey.com \
    --to=tftorrey@tftorrey.com \
    --cc=carsten.dominik@gmail.com \
    --cc=emacs-orgmode@gnu.org \
    --cc=kjambunathan@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).