Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software

Re:Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software by icebraining on Saturday June 13, 2015 @01:12PM (#9711688)

Historically the FSF required copyright assignment for FSF works. This was to avoid having any potential problems where a contributor thought they were OK to contribute, but the employer potentially had a "work for hire" claim.

How would that work? If you don't have the legal standing to contribute to the project, you certainly can't reassign the copyright to another party.

The copyright assignment is so that the FSF can sue if someone break the project's license. They also require a disclaimer that the work isn't for-hire, but that's a different issue.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.en.html

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Re:Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software by btilly on Saturday June 13, 2015 @01:21PM (#9711730)

The process of getting the employer disclaimer mentioned in your link exists exactly to catch cases where the contributor was mistaken about their ability to legally contribute.

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Re:Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software by icebraining on Saturday June 13, 2015 @01:33PM (#9711798)

Yes, but the disclaimer is not the copyright assignment, they're different legal acts.

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Re:Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software by btilly on Saturday June 13, 2015 @01:43PM (#9711841)

True, they are different forms. However they are both part of the process of making sure that the FSF actually owns that copyright.

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