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

Hi Andrea,

( just to mention: I did not make my mind on this yet, I'm just 
providing some thoughts)

> Von: Andrea Pescetti <pescetti@openoffice.org>
> An: discuss@documentfoundation.org

> > The paperwork was only a practical detail: not relinquising your
> > copyright is the most important.
>
> I haven't seen any new contributor write that they joined because of 
> (the refusal of) a copyright agreement; while I have seen several new 
> contributors write that they started contributing because the "Easy 
> Hacks" were so easy that they didn't require any previous technical 
> knowledge.

If we want an answer on this (would developers not have joined if there 
was a CA) we would need to ask them. This should indeed be asked
at the dev-list. I'd bet, that at least some of them would state
that they not would have joined.


> Do you need an example? Think of a "happy ending" where, to the benefit 
> of users, OOo and all derivatives merge in a common project. There are 
> many stakeholders (Oracle, IBM, Novell, Red Hat, Redflag, the Document 
> Foundation...) and they might agree on a new, free, license with some 
> special provisions due to the long history of OOo. Now, without 
> copyright assignments/agreements every stakeholder would be able to join 
> the unified project except the Document Foundation. By choosing against 
> copyright assignments/agreements you are killing this dream... And I 
> can't see how the Document Foundation could realistically say it is open 
> to discuss with companies in this setting.


Ok, got your point. But I (personally) see that this is very unlikely to 
happen. I might be wrong, but everything I heard from the OOo main
sponsor so far indicated that they will never ever debate the CA /
licensing issue on a common ground.

Anyway - it all depends on the question if developers would sign the CA.
And we can only ask developers on this.

André




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