On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 11:23:39AM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Keith Packard writes ("Re: Bug#727708: init system discussion status"):
> > I feel that having the Debian community endorse software where a CLA is
> > involved will tacitly encourage developers to enter into those
> > agreements so that their work can be published as widely as possible.
> I can see the force of this point.
> Could we address this by adding something explicit to the TC
> resolution ?
> N. We are firmly opposed to Canonical's upstart Contributor Licence
> Agreement.
> As with any other program in Debian whose upstream has
> controversial copyright practices, the Debian project will
> continue accept and deploy useful patches whose contributors
> decline to enter into unfair copyright agreements.
> We recommend that Debian contributors do not sign the CLA, even
> when contributing changes which might be widely useful.
I would prefer to see more neutral wording, something to the effect of:
The Technical Committee does not endorse the use of a CLA by the
upstart project, which causes barriers to contributions from the wider
Free Software community, and this decision is not a recommendation
that Debian contributors sign the CLA.
I.e., rather than a positive recommendation to contributors about what
licensing agreements they should choose to engage in (which I don't think
it's the TC's place to do), a softer call-out to make it clear that this is
not an endorsement of CLAs.
But perhaps this doesn't satisfy Keith's concern. (Perhaps neither wording
does.)
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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