Re: Potential LSR licensing violations

[Jean Abou Samra]

Le 20/10/2022 à 09:26, Luca Fascione a écrit :
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 9:07 AM Jean Abou Samra <jean@abou-samra.fr> 
> wrote:
>
>     Anyway, this discussion is academical. It would have practical
>     relevance if we were creating the project today.
>     `git shortlog -s | wc -l` tells that there have been
>     236 contributors to the project. We cannot ask each of
>     them to assign copyright to the LilyPond foundation even
>     if we were to create it.
>
>
> To a point, though: first off, if you start change, you embark on a path
> that will eventually take you to a better place.
> Secondarily, although there are 236 contributors, how many have 
> contributed code that
> is still alive (and needed)?
>
> I'm saying that I don't agree with your statement that we cannot ask 
> 236 people to assign copyright.
> It seems to me it's far from impossible to send a couple hundred 
> emails, filter the responses and blast out
> a code update. Of the X remaining (80?) we can analyze the impact of 
> the corresponding code and
> proceed with a decision (a part of the project is in a difficult spot, 
> code is rewritten, functionality turns out to
> be buggy or dead, many scenarios are possible).
>
> Besides, if a foundation in itself is needed, it doesn't seem 
> impossible to get one going, is it?
>
> One thing that seems certain to me is that doing nothing guarantees 
> there will be no change.



I think the two advantages of copyright assignment you mention
in your earlier email are very small in the context of LilyPond
-- AFAIK, this is the first time we have to do a relicensing,
and the odds of a legal case involving LilyPond are very small
due to its low-key profile in the industry. I feel this would
be much ado about nothing.