ports to 2.96 and 3.1 versions

[Joe Buck]

> This is one place that ought to be completely revisited. The time needed
> to process copyright assignment papers is astounding. The fore-knowledge
> needed to be able to participate in any FSF process is fairly large (even
> knowing that those papers exist is not trivial, choosing which ones to
> sign is not easy, and it takes at the least 3 months to do that).

It doesn't take nearly that long unless something goes wrong (that is,
unless someone drops the ball).  But you only hear about the outliers,
because those are the people who (naturally) complain.

> Now, I'm wondering why any of the companies that benefit directly from
> GNU software hasn't stepped forward to help organise that.

Oh, come on.  If a company got involved and asked their legal staff to
help, the process would get *slower*, given the extreme caution and
paranoia of most lawyers.

But if you have a specific suggestion on how to make things better, by
all means send it to RMS (no one on this list has the power to make a
change).