Re: Classpath future?

[Etienne M. Gagnon]

Jeff Sturm wrote:

> Out of curiousity, what would you contribute that you wouldn't want to
> assign?  There should be a clear boundary between Classpath and your
> SableVM project.  Code for the former should benefit any VM project.


I could contribute many small patches to make Classpath robust.  I could 
also help build a robust security architecture, supporting protection 
domains, etc.  I could contribute classes that could be reused by other 
VMs to implement base class loading functionality, etc.

You have to understand I am very fortunate that UQAM [unlike many other 
Universities Canada] does explicitely recognise "contributions to the 
collectivity" as part of a professor's task.  But, part of this is that 
contributions should "reflect on the University".  Copyright assignment, 
be it to the best non-for-profit organization, does not fit well at all 
within my employer's objectives (nor my personal ones, as I am the 
Copyright holder, in the current situation).  It is a legitimate right 
that I have not to give away the Copyright on code I write, while still 
distributing it under a GNU license.  OK, I won't be able to benefit 
from the FSF's legal team to defend my code, but this is my problem, not 
the FSF's.  So, I don't see why the Classpath project cannot accept 
contributions without Copyright assignment.

Now, the GPL allows you to do everything you want (within its freedom 
requirements), including forking the project, if you want to add your 
code without giving away your Copyright.  But, I despise useless effort 
splitting, and I am instead suggesting that rules be relaxed, so that 
the project can finally pick up some steam.  I am not alone thinking 
that the project is being hindered by these legal issues.

Also, I maintain my reserves on the current text of the GPL exception. 
It is (unless I'm proven wrong) quite too permissive, not requiring 
source code distribution.

Etienne
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| Étienne M. Gagnon                    mailto:address@hidden |
| Professeur adjoint            Téléphone: (514) 987-3000 poste 8215 |
| Bureau: PK-4930                        Télécopieur: (514) 987-8477 |
| Département d'informatique, UQÀM          http://www.info.uqam.ca/ |
| Auteur de SableVM                          http://www.sablevm.org/ |
| et de SableCC                              http://www.sablecc.org/ |
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| Etienne M. Gagnon                    mailto:address@hidden |
| Assistant Professor                Phone: (514) 987-3000 ext. 8215 |
| Office: PK-4930                                Fax: (514) 987-8477 |
| Department of Computer Science, UQAM      http://www.info.uqam.ca/ |
| Author of SableVM                          http://www.sablevm.org/ |
| and SableCC                                http://www.sablecc.org/ |
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