"VM" == Vladimir Marangozov <Vladimir.Marangozov@inrialpes.fr> writes:
VM> BTW, I'm surprised by the fact that in an Open Source world VM> I'm asked to sign a licence agreement with CNRI or to send VM> e-mails for contributed code. If Python or Linux had had such VM> constraints from the start, they wouldn't have been what they VM> are today. Note that the FSF has been requiring signatures for a long time. Actually, their requirements are IMHO more onerous because they require you to assign your copyrights to the FSF. Their lawyers have told them that they cannot defend the copyright of, e.g. Emacs, unless they own the copyrights to the entire codebase (or at least, anything that they couldn't rip out, throw away, and not completely cripple the application). CNRI's viewpoint is less drastic, but still important. It means that you retain the copyright on the code (good for you), but you give us permission to use it as we see fit (good for us /and/ for you :). Otherwise, it would be possible for a malicious person to contribute something really vital and useful, wait for it to become indispensible, and then say, "oops, we really didn't mean to let you use that code, sorry!" -Barry