[somethingsimple]

Do you know what GNU's rationale is for requiring copyright assignment?

[femto]

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.en.html

Because it makes it easier for them, as owner, to deal with copyright violations.

[GhotiFish]

conversely, what's the argument against assigning copyright? I'm pretty sure the EFF can be trusted to keep nano open source.

[sundarurfriend]

> I'm pretty sure the EFF

Do you mean FSF here?

[GhotiFish]

oops. yah.

[artlogic]

I'm no expert, but I believe the rationale is to simplify relicensing (GPLv2 -> GPLv3, for instance). I also think the papers disallow dual licensing the project with a proprietary license.

There's more discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11953703