[Savannah-register-public] [task #14621] Submission of Graph Model Library

[Ineiev]

Follow-up Comment #11, task #14621 (project administration):

>>> One relevant consequence of this is that in US courts
>>> contributors to software only have standing for their own contribution in
>>> the absence of some procedure that clearly establishes the right for some
>>> person or entity to act on their behalf.
>>
>> Do you mean they are denied the right to hire a lawyer? This seems
>> extremely surprising. I believe it would violate the UDHR.
>> Could you support this with some references?
>
> Of course anyone can hire a lawyer to defend their rights.  The point
> is that simply enlisting someone (e.g., a lawyer) to defend rights has
> no bearing on the rights that can be defended or the potential
> remedies that might be obtained.

I'm confused: are you saying that I can pay lawyers, but I can't
authorize them to act on my behalf in courts? This is what I would
describe as being effectively denied the right to hire a lawyer.
Note that I'm not discussing the set of rights the authors might
defend, I'm discussing "the absence of some procedure that clearly
establishes the right for some person or entity to act on their behalf."

>> Yes, I think the activity of "Us" releasing a proprietary version
>> of the library in binary-only form has some bearing on the rights
>> of people wishing to use derivative works, in particular,
>> that proprietary version of the library. Why doesn't it?

I still don't understand why this has no bearing on the rights of
people wishing to use proprietary derivative works.

> Nobody is obligated to use any particular work of any sort.  Nor is
> anyone obligated to contribute to any particular project and may
> decline to do so for any reason whatsoever.

The GNU project doesn't support this line of reasoning, especially
the first part. We maintain that offering people proprietary software
is injustice by itself, nobody should have the power to do that.

> In this case, the released code is forever free; contributions to it
> are free; anything derived from it is free.

No, proprietary software derived from it by "Us" is not free.
How can it be free?

> Additionally, contributors retain ownership of copyright,
> retain moral rights, and have full economic rights regarding their
> contributions.

They lose the legal ability to disallow "Us" using their work
in proprietary products. This is an economic right, by the way.

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