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Re: malloc: performance improvements and bugfixes


On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 06:44:37PM -0800, Jörn Engel wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 07:22:32AM +0530, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
> > On 26 January 2016 at 06:30, Jörn Engel <joern@purestorage.com> wrote:
> > > Agreed.  I thought I mentioned that this is a braindump and not a
> > > patchset for submission. ;)
> > 
> > Thank you for doing this. There is however the issue of copyright
> > assignment.  I don't have access to the copyright list, so could you
> > (or Carlos, Joseph, etc.) please tell me if you have signed it?
> 
> I have not and will not.  Or at least someone with a silver tongue would
> have to spend significant time explaining the advantages of copyright
> assignment to me.

Maybe I should elaborate a little.

I am quite thankful to the FSF for the GPL.  Creating that license was a
wonderful move for those people that aren't happy with BSD-style
licenses.

That said, I find language like "version 2 or later" trollbait at best.
The paranoid in me and many other developers starts wondering under what
circumstances the FSF might turn evil, by any definition of evil, and
create a license to further their own schemes.

Some might argue that GPLv3 already is evil.  I personally don't mind
either version 2 or 3, but I hate the rift this has created where some
code is "2 only please" and other code is "3 or later".

Copyright assignment is far far worse.  I am signing away ownership of
the code.  But of which code?  Everything I ever write in the future?
To answer this question I have to read a lot of legalese, any developers
favorite.  Then I have to pay a lawyer to explain the finer points to
me, because I may have missed them.  Next I have to pay a second lawyer
to judge whether the first lawyer even knew what he was talking about,
which sadly isn't always the case.

At this point I am pretty much exhausted and write some kernel code
instead.  Linus will fuzz about the technical merits that I enjoy
deliberating, not about copyright assignment.  Or I get a job where the
same legal problems await me, but I at least get compensated for them.

And just in case it wasn't clear, all the above is my personal opinion
and not that of my employer.  Maybe my employer sees enough merit in
getting code upstream to handle the legal work.  I do not and will not
pursue this any further.

Sad.

Jörn

--
It's just what we asked for, but not what we want!
-- anonymous


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