Question about code licensing

[Joe Buck]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 05:31:03PM -0800, Jerry Quinn wrote:
> There is renewed interest in getting a D compiler into the GCC sources.
> The most direct route for this to happen is to use the existing Digital
> Mars DMD front end.
> 
> The current DMD front end code is GPL licensed, and copyright is owned
> by Digital Mars.  If they were to fork the source, and contribute that
> fork under the current license of GCC, do they still possess the freedom
> to continue to do what they wish with the original code?

The standard FSF contribution paperwork assigns copyright to the FSF and
then grants back a license to the contributor to do whatever they want
with the original code (continue to develop it, distribute under other
terms, embed in proprietary products -- not sure about any restrictions).
I'm not sure whether that would work for what they want to do or not.  If
it would, it's easy.  Otherwise they might be able to make some other
arrangement with the FSF.

Ideally, something could be worked out so they wouldn't feel the need
to continue to maintain a fork.  It's not very efficient.