WineCorp (was Re: Wine license change)

[Brett Glass]

At 04:26 AM 2/14/2002, Roger Fujii wrote:

>This scheme would make the license awkward, because you have to add in
>"oh, by the way, all the contributions you make will be given to winecorp
>with an unrestricted license" clause.  It is far cleaner and simpler to
>require contributions to assign the copyright.  OpenOffice does this.

The danger of this approach is that EVERYONE -- even contributors -- must 
go to the organization that owns the copyright and ask, "Mother, may I?" 
before doing things with the code. Commercial entities will have no
guarantee that they'll be allowed to use even their own contributions --
especially if their competitors are part of the body that grants 
permissions. Politics can also rear their head, with favoritism toward
specific vendors.

One of the nicest things about the current license is that you do not
need to ask, wait, reveal your product plans to competitors (which 
will inevitably happen if they have representatives in the organization),
and risk being denied permission to use the code. You can't run a business
unless you can move ahead with confidence -- without having to ask "Mother,
may I?" or tell competitors what you're up to.

--Brett