Re: [tdf-discuss] Copyright Assignments & the Document Foundation

Charles-H. Schulz wrote:
> We initially agreed not to request the assignment of copyright for code
> contributions, and we can only witness that it's been so far the right
> decision: Many developers have joined us and contribute

Honestly, I believe new developers joined because the bar for 
contribution was lowered to the point that anyone who can use a text 
editor can contribute to the code, even if he is unable to build 
LibreOffice. The Easy Hacks were a nice way to attract new people. Of 
course the paperwork reduction may have helped too, but I don't see it 
as the most effective improvement.

> 3) ... In the CVS (and even SVN) there was a real hierarchy. ... 
> BTW; LibreOffice uses Git, which is a distributed SCM.

So did (and still does) OpenOffice.org with Mercurial, another 
distributed SCM. But I don't believe this is relevant.

> 4) the notion that we cannot change license because we don't have
> copyright assignment needs to be put to rest once and for all today.
> There is a very simple explanation with respect to this issue; ask any
> lawyer and he/she will confirm this: Sun/Oracle has licensed the OOo
> code under LGPL v3. They could have put "LGPL v3 or later" or "LGPL v3
> or +". But they didn't. And that's what makes impossible to turn OOo
> into a different license unless the sole copyright owner agrees to
> change it, which is unlikely with Oracle.

Well, if you take for granted that cooperation between Oracle and the 
Document Foundation will forever be impossible then you are right. But 
who knows what will happen in months, years? If Oracle changes attitude 
and wants to discuss licensing with the Document Foundation, the 
Document Foundation will be in the awkward position of "representing" 
the LibreOffice developers only in theory, because any agreement would 
then need to be confirmed with every developer; while with a copyright 
agreement/assignment in place, the Document Foundation could effectively 
represent a measurable percentage of the codebase, and its opinion be 
weighed accordingly.

Best regards,
  Andrea Pescetti.

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