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Thank you for your work. I have a question about copyright assignment. You wrote: >Unlike a lot of large open source projects, authors of VLC keep all their ri

by minot 11y ago

Thank you for your work. I have a question about copyright assignment. You wrote: >Unlike a lot of large open source projects, authors of VLC keep all their rights on their code, even if the code is minimal. http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/How-to-properly-relicense-a-large-open-source-project http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/How-to-properly-relice... For an entirely new project, would you rather require all contributors to assign copyright to a single entity which then manages licensing or would you have individuals retain copyright? (Off topic: is this even possible in France?)

jbk 11y ago
> For an entirely new project, would you rather require all contributors to assign copyright to a single entity which then manages licensing or would you have individuals retain copyright? (Off topic: is this even possible in France?) First, there are more than 2 options. I'd say there are 3. Copyright assignment is ALWAYS the wrong answer. It's a bad idea, and I would even that this is unethical, and illegal in numerous countries. If you want more control, notably for a potential future license change, do a Copyright agreement that is not an assignment. Explain clearly what is in the agreement and what is not. Total individual copyright is a great idea, but if you care about an application that will go on an appstore, don't go this route. If you integrate a lot of library, same. But if you do a new cool software, just for fun, yes, keep it like this.