Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote:
On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 01:50:08PM +1000, Russell Coker wrote:
The main thing that would make me want to give code to the FSF is the fact that they will enforce the GPL. I don't want to be involved in legal cases. If someone flagrantly violated the GPL on one of my projects I'd seriously consider offering the code to the FSF if they would take legal action.
yep, that's another valuable thing that the code contributor gets in exchange for their code.
I doubt, however, that copyright assignment is necessary for this. An organization concerned with defending the GPL could just contact contributors in the event of a dispute and obtain authorization from them to pursue an action in their names. I haven't looked into the details of this, but superfically at least, it isn't clear why this should be any different from an insurance company which has a right under an insurance contract to bring suet against allegedly negligent parties to recover damages. Either way, it's easier if the organization that runs the case is also the copyright holder, but I'm not sure how much of an advantage it is, as long as the contributors are willing to have proceedings brought on their behalf. I would expect the actual evidence and the level of involvement required of contributors, if any, to be similar in either circumstance.