Re: Copyright assignment

[Thomas Vander Stichele <thomas apestaart org>]

Hi,

> > 
> > This two are reason enough for not wanting to take even a slight look at
> > mono.
> 
> In this whole discussion, this is surely the most important point. In my
> opinion the red tape of signing a few pieces of paper is minor. Donating
> code to a company who may use it in proprietary products? That is
> exactly what the GPL is trying to avoid.

The GPL tries to avoid donating the code to *any random company*.
If this is a problem to you then it's pretty simple - don't sign the
papers and don't contribute to Evolution.
 
> > Has the freedom to do it, not necessarily the power in that it needs a
> > better skill. Who's the employer of most (if not all) of the main
> > coders, who are extremely familiar with the source code?
> 
> But more importantly, forking will still leave the donated code in the
> proprietary product the company (be it Ximian, or Novell, or whoever
> will buy Novell in the future) chooses to sell.

Yes, and that's how it's always been.  You signing some papers won't
change that.  There's also nothing wrong with that.  Is there anyone out
there who believes that most of the code is not written by Ximian
employees ? Is there anyone out there who thinks that something like
Evolution would ever have been written if the company had been unable to
do what they want with the code, including relicensing for proprietary
sale ?

If anyone feels that we should be in a world where Evolution should be
only GPL for everyone, or not exist, then please write something better
that is only GPL, with an exception clause that even you yourself as
author or not allowed to relicense it.  At that point I might consider
switching.

Until that time, I'll happily continue using an excellent program that
is free software.

Thomas

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