[Python-Dev] release forms? (was: [Patches] New sys method to return total reference count in debug builds.)

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "MZ" == Moshe Zadka <moshez@math.huji.ac.il> writes:

    MZ> Who's in charge of the PSA?  Or should we form *another*
    MZ> non-profit, and sign it over to it?  (Personally, I couldn't
    MZ> care less who I transfer copyright over my Python
    MZ> contributions to -- I'd put it in the public domain if that's
    MZ> what it took)

Please remember that the copyright holder can release the code under
whatever license they want, even multiple different licenses.
Copyright != license.

I'm not sure what the right thing to do here is.  On the one hand, Bob
Kahn always said nobody would use Python if its heritage
(i.e. copyright ownership) were not nailed down like Java.  On the
other hand, there's a lot of nobodies out there right now :).

For GNU projects, the FSF wants to own all the copyrights to the code.
They actually want you to legally assign the copyright to them.  Their
explanation for this onerous requirement is that if they were not the
copyright holder, they would not have the legal standing to defend GPL
violations, or would have to coordinate with a ton of developers,
making such legal defenses practically impossible.

Python is in a different situation, IMO, because it has a /less/
restrictive license than the GPL, so there's less to get all huffy
about in court.  If someone builds a binary-only proprietary blend of
Python and starts selling it without source code, well, there's no
license violation there, so what's to defend?

The argument has been made that without clear legal title, someone
could claim that some of the donated code in Python violated a
copyright or patent and try to stop 3rd parties from using Python.
Who knows what the actual legal possibility of that happening are, but
I don't see how 1) we could take any real defense against this or 2)
it affects Python any differently than any other large
multi-contributor open source system.

-Barry