From 2514dc028029e991a965aba011d9a8e65ee8ea37 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christopher Allan Webber Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:26:03 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Clarified that copyright assignment is encouraged, but not mandatory. --- docs/designdecisions.rst | 29 ++++++++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/designdecisions.rst b/docs/designdecisions.rst index 3398c24b..93dffbd9 100644 --- a/docs/designdecisions.rst +++ b/docs/designdecisions.rst @@ -244,17 +244,24 @@ everyone is the hero by Will on "Why AGPLv3 and CC0": .. _CC0 v1: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ -Why copyright assignment? -========================= +Why (non-mandatory) copyright assignment? +========================================= -Will Kahn-Greene on "Why copyright assignment?": +Chris Webber on "Why copyright assignment?": - GNU MediaGoblin is a GNU project with the copyrights held by the - FSF. Like other GNU projects, we require copyright assignment to - the FSF which gives the FSF the legal ability to defend the - AGPL-covered status of the software and distribute it. + GNU MediaGoblin is a GNU project with non-mandatory but heavily + encouraged copyright assignment to the FSF. Most, if not all, of + the core contributors to GNU MediaGoblin will have done a + copyright assignment, but unlike some other GNU projects, it isn't + required here. We think this is the best choice for GNU + MediaGoblin: it ensures that the Free Software Foundation may + protect the software by enforcing the AGPL if the FSF sees fit, + but it also means that we can immediately merge in changes from a + new contributor. It also means that some significant non-FSF + contributors might also be able to enforce the AGPL if seen fit. - This is important to us because it guarantees that this software - we're working so hard on will be available to everyone and will - survive us. As long as someone is interested in using it and/or - working on it, it will live on. + Again, assignment is not mandatory, but it is heavily encouraged, + even incentivized: significant contributors who do a copyright + assignment to the FSF are eligible to have a unique goblin drawing + produced for them by the project's main founder, Christopher Allan + Webber. See :ref:`contributinghowto` for details.