4 ms·
This is a good thing for the health of the GNU ecosystem, and I hope other GNU projects adopt this practice. Related story: a couple of years ago, the current
by nonfamous 5y ago
This is a good thing for the health of the GNU ecosystem, and I hope other GNU projects adopt this practice.
Related story: a couple of years ago, the current maintainer of an Emacs package reached out to me. Apparently the FSF wanted to make it part of the official Emacs distribution, and wanted me to assign my copyright to them. I was happy to do so, BUT: the code was written more than 20 years ago when I was at university, which (according to the FSF) meant I needed to get a copyright release from the university, in a country I no longer lived in and that I had not interacted with for literal decades. This seemed like far too much trouble at that point, so I gave up, and the package never became part of Emacs.
- brnt 5y agoWouldnt the copyright have expired at that point?
- rwmj 5y agoCopyright terms last effectively forever, and certainly a lot lot longer than 20 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term
- johnzim 5y agoCopyright tends to run from the death of the author for a period (in the US is 70 years after death). As for where it's assigned to an institution, it'll still have a long time to run - decades!
- rodgerd 5y agoCopyright is either the death of the author plus a period, or a length of time for a non-human entity such as a university or limited liability company.
- NavinF 5y agoIn a sane world it would have expired, but not here. cf. The Mickey Mouse Protection Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act# https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act...