[Python-Dev] Deciding against the CLA

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Mon Apr 15 09:15:22 CEST 2013


Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> writes:

> On 13/04/13 20:30, Ben Finney wrote:
> > "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org> writes:
> >> A failure to sign the CLA is already a decision not to contribute
> >> to the distribution
> >
> > As someone who cannot in good faith sign the CLA, that
> > characterisation is far from accurate: I would very much like to
> > contribute to the Python distribution, and so have not decided as
> > you describe.
>
> Could you explain, briefly, why you cannot sign the CLA?

Because software freedom in a work is undermined when any recipient is
granted special legal privilege in the work.

As it currently stands, the Contributor Agreement grants special legal
privilege in the work (the power to unilaterally re-license the work) to
the PSF.

By “special privilege”, I mean that this power is granted specially to
some but denied to all other recipients of the work. Hence to sign the
Contributor Agreement as it currently stands is to undermine software
freedom in the resulting work.

-- 
 \            “Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what |
  `\                mnemonic means, you've got a problem.” —Larry Wall |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney



More information about the Python-Dev mailing list