Comment by craftkiller

Comment by craftkiller 4 days ago

IANAL but their official reason for the CLA seems pretty reasonable to me: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.en.html

tl;dr: If someone violates the GPL, the FSF can't sue them on your behalf unless they are a copyright holder.

(personally I don't release anything under virus licenses like the GPL but I don't think there's a nefarious purpose behind their CLA)

dragonwriter 4 days ago

> If someone violates the GPL, the FSF can't sue them on your behalf unless they are a copyright holder.

This seems to be factually untrue; you can assign specific rights under copyright (such as your right to sue and receive compensation for violations by third parties) without assigning the underlying copyright. Transfer of the power to relicense is not necessary for transfer of the power to sue.

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teddyh 4 days ago

Whether or not it is acually true, this is what their lawyer has told them, and so the FSF is acting accordingly. You can’t reasonably blame them for that.

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- dragonwriter 3 days ago
  
  I can’t reasonably excuse the FSF for it, and if you think about what the FSF’s mission and prime means of pursuing it is, I think you’ll see why your blame-outsourcing excuse doesn't really work in this case.
  
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