Jambunathan, If you're leaving the Org-mode community, I'd prefer to remember you with gratitude for leaving us the excellent ODT exporter. Please stop diminishing your legacy with this quasi-legal wrangling.
As a user, I have greatly appreciated both your code contributions and your patient help on the mailing list in the past. I think your recent way of registering your displeasure with the Org maintainer is beneath you. Also unhelpful, pointless, damaging to the community, and, in the worst-case scenario, a damn waste of good work. Yours, Christian Jambunathan K writes: > I have terminated my copyright assignment to Emacs (or atleast notified > the copyright desk). > > For the sake of record, I haven't authorized Bastien to move the > ox-html.el and ox-odt.el out of the ./contrib/lisp directory in to the > main ./lisp/ directory. He didn't seek my permissions to move the file > away from contrib/lisp in to lisp/. > > I cannot agree with Orgmode project's contention that I have given > consent for above work to be included in Emacs proper. > > If FSF ever consults me on rights to my contributions to the above > files, my position will ambiguously be > > "Changes made by me to files ox-html.el, ox-odt.el and > ox-freemind.el are my own and I assert my rights over the changes. > Specifically, I will not acknowledge FSF as having the rights to the > said changes." > > Bastien has lost my trust very long back. More so when he resorted to > erasing attribution to my work. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > My changes to ox-html.el and ox-odt.el is not worth the keyboard it is > typed on. My changes are useful. Handing over of rights, liberal > license grant backs from FSF and enforcement of copyright etc. are too > big a thing to even think about for my humble contributions. The size > of my contributions are simply not worth so much bureaucratic trouble. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > Meanwhile, interesting observers can observe how FSF responds. Either > they can act consistent with project policy (and reject my work) or > appropriate my work (through changing the rules of the game and > interpreting the terms of contract) to suit their agenda. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > Advice for potential contributors: > ---------------------------------- > > Think before signing a Future Assignment. Why write a blank cheque and > have RMS run behind you with "this is a diff to Emacs and all your code > is mine." > > Assign work on a case-by-case basis. > > Insist that you cannot apriori sign off rights to future works (Future > work and circumstances cannot be predicted. Be circumspect). If more > people refuse to assign future rights, FSF will be forced to review > their stance. > > Ask for information on how you can withhold assignments for some > selected work. > > Ask them for cancellation form or a "withholding" form. > > Ask them at what point in time your work is *actually part* of Emacs. > > Carefully consider the arguments that FSF advances and also the > arguments advanced by detractors. Don't be swayed by propaganda. > > If you are not sure, just don't sign the copyright and wait till you > have ascertained the nature of your work in it's near final form. > > Jambunathan K.
