#GCC does away with the requirement for copyright assignments to the FSF:
https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2021-June/236182.html
I think it’s a wise decision in this day and age. 👍
More importantly than the decision itself, it sets a good precident, as many companies insist on copyright assignments and have been able to point to the FSF.
There is still the issue of handling copyright relicensing when the author has passed on, but perhaps one problem at a time?
@emacsen I think relicensing it not much of an issue: it’s copyleft and can only go in the direction of more freedoms for users (as in: one can redistribute LGPL code under GPL, GPL code under AGPL, etc.).
As long as it does not become the wild west like #Linux, with enough of a mess to make the SCO lawsuit possible, I think it’s okay. (Unfortunately the Steering Committee’s statement does not rule out the possibility of creating a mess…)
@ArneBab @emacsen I’ve never heard about assignment to the FSF being used as a tool to allow relicening under a weaker license; that would be quite astonishing!
The main justification is that it makes it easier to enforce copyright in court:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html
https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Copyright-Papers
@civodul @emacsen here’s the argumentation when such weakening of a license can be a net win for free software: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2009/01/14/qt-lgpl.html
www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assig…
