> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2021 at 4:01 AM > From: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <ma...@orcam.me.uk> > To: "Paul Koning" <paulkon...@comcast.net> > Cc: "Jakub Jelinek" <ja...@redhat.com>, "GCC Development" <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> > Subject: Re: Update to GCC copyright assignment policy > > On Tue, 1 Jun 2021, Paul Koning via Gcc wrote: > > > That seems to create a possible future complication. Prior to this > > change, the FSF (as owner of the copyright) could make changes such as > > replacing the GPL 2 license by GPL 3. With the policy change, that > > would no longer be possible, unless you get the approval of all the > > copyright holders. This may not be considered a problem, but it does > > seem like a change. > > It is a real problem. As I recall a while ago parts of QEMU had to be > removed and reimplemented from scratch when the project switched licences, > because a contributor and therefore a copyright holder (whom I knew in > person and who I am sure would make no fuss about it) has since passed > away. > > Maciej
That assumes that one wants to use the original developer version. But if a maintainer wants to include and support that piece of code for some particular reason, he should be able to do it. A free software license should not stop us from using the code, whether he died or not. Indeed the licensing is there to avoid such problems. It is also legally enforceable. It was one of wy arguments in favour. ----- Christopher Dimech Society has became too quick to pass judgement and declare someone Persona Non-Grata, the most extreme form of censure a country can bestow. In a new era of destructive authoritarianism, I support Richard Stallman. Times of great crisis are also times of great opportunity. I call upon you to make this struggle yours as well ! https://stallmansupport.org/ https://www.fsf.org/ https://www.gnu.org/
