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Re: SGI releases IA64 C C++ and F90 compiler under GPL
>>>>> "Alexandre" == Alexandre Oliva <aoliva@cygnus.com> writes:
Alexandre> On May 21, 2000, Marc Espie <espie@quatramaran.ens.fr>
Alexandre> wrote:
>> Giving away your copyright to the FSF means the code will be
>> distributed under the GPL only.
Alexandre> Nope. You're free to keep distributing your code with
Alexandre> whatever license better suits you, because the
Alexandre> copyright assignment says so: while you assign
Alexandre> copyright to the FSF, FSF grants you the right to do
Alexandre> whatever you want with the code you're assigning.
This discussion is interesting. I'm not sure it's entirely
appropriate for this list, but since many people reading the list do
write code which they might or might not wish to contribute, it's
probably of general interest.
I am not a lawyer. However, I think your interpretation is a little
broad. The blanket assignment that CodeSourcery executed, for
example, says:
FSF agrees to grant back to Developer, and does hereby grant,
non-exclusive rights to use the Works (i.e., Developer's changes
and/or enhancements, not the programs that they enhance), as
Developer sees fit
It's not clear to me exactly what this means. I believe it means that
we could use the code in a proprietary product. I'm not sure it means
that we could release the code under another license to the general
public. Similarly, I'm not sure if we can license the code to another
party for use in their proprietary product. (After all, we no longer
own the code.) Clarification of the FSF's intent regarding this issue
would certainly be valuable.
--
Mark Mitchell mark@codesourcery.com
CodeSourcery, LLC http://www.codesourcery.com