Re: Evolution copyright assignment: Storm in a teacup

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    Funny, Richard Stallman endorsed a way in which software is made
    available under the GPL but also offering a proprietary version of it
    for those who do not need/can get the GPL edition.  

The suggestion I made is to release the program under the GPL, and
sell alternative licenses for the same code to clients that want to
link the code with non-free software.

I have suggested this business model to several companies that were
hesitating about making their software free.  And several of them did
so with this idea.  One special characteristic of this model is that
all the code is always available as free software.

I don't see any problem if Novell follows this same business model for
Evolution.  If it does, I would also encourage developers to
cooperate, such as by assigning their copyrights.  However, the
contract wording that has been cited here doesn't say that Novell will
follow this model.