Re: Seeking input from developers: glibc copyright assignment policy.

[Alexandre Oliva <oliva@gnu.org>]

Hello, Bradley,

Thank you for taking the time to try to influence this community in a
direction that is more conducive to our shared goals of promoting
software freeom than what is being considered.

I've remained mainly silent in this debate, because I feel the climate
and the perceived allegiances I hold, and the emotional rather than
strategic motivations behind these pressure campaigns, are unlikely to
help my arguments be heard, or, worse, are likely to have them taken as
something to be opposed.

I'm glad someone like you, who AFAICT is not afflicted by these
perceptions, has made so clear the risks of corporate takeover, and of
copyleft dilution into meaninglessness.  Thank for having done this.

I'd like to subscribe to your recommendation that we don't make this
decision in a hurry, and that we don't take lightly the loss of the
primary leverage we have to keep copyrights, and thus copyleft
enforcement powers, in the hands of organizations that can normally be
counted on to pursue them, and to amount to a credible threat to those
considering deviating from them, instead of approaching these matters
under the shadow of usual corporate interests.


Even if some believe a policy change away from assignments to the FSF
may make things better, they should consider whether they'd really
prefer contributors' employers to keep the copyrights instead.  As soon
as the possibility of not contributing copyrights is instated, employers
will have little reason to give much consideration to employee's
requests for assignments or disclaimers.

The leverage will be gone, and existing contracts in which employees
counted on project's requirements and consequent corporate assignments
to land copyrights in hands that are aligned with and committed to
software freedom, may be turned into corporate-held copyrights, without
any actions o even awareness by employees, by having the corporation
unilaterally terminating the assignment for future contributions.


Some may welcome these policy changes as a means to defy and hurt the
FSF and RMS, but ultimately it will hurt harder the project's goals, and
those of its contributors.  I'm sure those who are seeding dissent from
behind the curtains, spreading lies, reinforcing incorrect perceptions,
and promoting self-defeating strategies within our ranks, don't mind at
all if we hurt each other and our projects.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker                https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist                       GNU Toolchain Engineer
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
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