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by taway1237 954 days ago
Ah yes, CLAs are not a real open source, which is why they're required by uhh FSF.

I mean I dislike CLAs personally, but I understand why they can be healthy for a project growth.

4 comments

> Ah yes, CLAs are not a real open source, which is why they're required by uhh FSF.

The last time I saw a FSF CLA, it was part of a larger agreement that also imposed obligations on the FSF.

In the long run, there may be risks to the FSF holding so many copyrights. But I don't think it clarifies matters to treat the FSF's CLAs the same as ones used by a "open core" VC funded startup.

Do you truly see no difference between assigning rights to your own code to a non-profit foundation dedicated to Free Software and assigning rights to your own code to a for-profit company?

Especially when the for-profit company openly announces this assignment of rights is for the purpose of selling code you wrote to others without giving back to the authors.

The FSF doesn't have a track record of asking for CLAs, and then selling your code to others under different licenses and pocketing the profits.

No, the issue is not that they are not open source. The issue is the risk to users/contributors.

These two things are being conflated in this discussion. One thing is a CLA and copyright/license changes. The other is the license itself.

If the Free Software Foundation which was started and is headed by Stallman himself betrays the free software movement, then nothing in this world can be trusted anymore.
Stallman has been browbeaten. For, uhh, being an awkward nerd. Can't have those having influence in our technological world.