[Sheflug] IBM S/390

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <nospam [at] sk.tsukuba.ac.jp>]

>>>>> "Richard" == Richard  <richard [at] sheflug.co.uk> writes:

    Richard> Those of you who have not read Linux User magazine may
    Richard> not be aware that IBM have given their copyrights for the
    Richard> S/390 port to the Free Software Foundation.

    Richard> I'm sure that some of you would like to ask Richard
    Richard> Stallman about this development

I sure would.  I would like to ask him if he intends to bury this
contribution the way he has buried the hundreds of free and clear
FSF-assigned contributions to Emacs made by dozens of XEmacs
developers.  I'm sure he has done it with other software, as well, but
he has made public statements with respect to XEmacs.

After all, the S/390 port suffers from exactly the same problem as
XEmacs: it is through and through mixed with code owned by entities
other than the Free Software Foundation.  By his own statement (see
http://www.xemacs.org/About/XEmacsVsGNUemacs.html) "We can't use [it]
in the GNU system: using it would mean paying a price in terms of our
ability to enforce the GPL.  Some of the people who have worked on
[it] have not provided, and have not asked other contributors to
provide, the legal papers to help us enforce the GPL."  Of course both
"[it]"s above were actually "XEmacs", but it clearly the statement
should apply equally well to "Linux".

But then, I forgot:  Linux _is_ part of the GNU system.  Oh well,
forget I ever posted....

On second thought, don't.  Just remember that the FSF is "on point" in
any legal battle over the GPL, but that it may have to be prodded into
action.  Make sure that rms is aware that the community expects him to
take action to protect our assets, whether FSF-assigned or not.  Of
course I acknowledge that according to the FSF's legal theory, it is
most effective for assigned software, but rms should also acknowledge
the FSF's broader responsibility.

That's what your three pounds is going for, unless I miss my guess.
(Yes, rms demands speaker's fees, and yes, AFAIK every penny of it
goes to the FSF.)

-- 
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