[Python-Dev] license issues with profiler.py and md5.h/md5c.c

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> Isn't the PSF somewhere in between?  I mean, in theory we are supposed 
> to be tracking stuff, but in practice there's no contributor agreement 
> for CVS committers ala Zope Corp.'s approach.  

That is not true, see

http://www.python.org/psf/contrib.html

We certainly don't have forms from all contributors, yet, but we
are working on it.

> So in some sense right 
> now, Python depends largely on the implied promise of its contributors 
> to license their contributions under the same terms as Python.  ISTM 
> that if somebody's lawyer is worried about whether Python contains 
> pseudo-public domain code, they should be downright horrified by the 
> absence of a paper trail on the rest.  But IANAM (I Am Not A Marketer), 
> either.  :)

And indeed, they are horrified. Right now, we can tell them we are
working on it - so I would like to see that any change that we make
to improve the PSF's legal standing. Adding code which was put into
the "public domain" makes it worse (atleast in the specific case -
we are clearly allowed to do what we do with the current md5 code;
for the newly-proposed code, it is not so clear, even if you think
it is likely we would win in court).

Regards,
Martin