Re: The copyright issue

[Andreas Röhler]

Am 09.08.2010 12:01, schrieb Richard Stallman:
> The main reason our lawyer gave when advising us to ask for copyright
> assignments is so that the copyright status of the program is simple.
> He said that would help us in court if we need to sue someone for
> violating the GPL.
>
> We can make an exception occasionally when it is very important
> but we should not make many exceptions.
>
>
>    

The crux is: this policy puts the risk at the weakest shoulders, at the 
contributors.
Please consider: adversaires of free software will not ignore this, will 
not miss the point.

BTW we have a prominent example in Germany already, how a career and 
social existence of an free softtware
activist might be ruined.

His name is Jörg Tauss. He was a member of the Parliament, the Bundestag.
Inside Germany as in Europe Jörg Tauss took action against software patents.

Knowing the strength of the lobby, I wondered this time, how he will 
survive.

Meanwhile he is thrown out of the Parliament, thrown out of the party, a 
convicted criminal in the eyes of majority.

Andreas