Re: On Contributing To Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 05:27:31 -0500
> Cc: larsi@gnus.org, rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> > Saying "it's a shame" that assignment process is needed and is in some
> > cases legally complicated is like blaming the traffic lights for
> > turning red at times.  It's not the traffic light that should be
> > blamed, it's the chaos that would ensue if the traffic laws were not
> > in place and enforced.
> 
> The copyright assignment requirement is not forced on us by external
> factors.  With few exceptions, the rest of the free software world lives
> happily without it.  Emacs *choose* to use it in the hope that it will
> give some legal advantages in a future GPL violation case.
> 
> Whether or not that will be needed in such a trial is anybody's guess
> (including the FSF lawyers, BTW, so they keep insisting) but I note that
> there are several GPL violation cases that have been quite successful
> without it.
> 
> Glibc and GCC have recently moved to use a DCO instead.  I think we
> should follow their lead:
> 
> https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Contribution%20checklist#Copyright_and_license

This is a horse that has been beaten to death.  The problems with the
DCO are well-known and documented.  The projects that switched to it
are gambling their future on what they believe is "good enough"
without any proof, like a driver that crosses on red light because he
sees no other vehicle coming.

This is a tangent, so please continue discussing it on emacs-tangents,
not here.