[MPlayer-dev-eng] KiSS of copyright

[Diego Biurrun]

D Richard Felker III writes:
 > On Sat, Mar 13, 2004 at 11:40:25AM +0000, Diego Biurrun wrote:
 > > All of you, please cut Gabucino some slack.  I'm sure he did his very
 > > best in representing the project and did so with the best intentions.
 > 
 > Until money was involved...

I'm not saying he acted correctly, just that he acted in good faith.

 > > been the "legal maintainer" of MPlayer and nobody complained so far.
 > 
 > Many have complained, just not in public. I have a proposal. Would all
 > who oppose Gabucino acting as legal representative for MPlayer post
 > here publicly for all to see? IMO this has gone way too far and we
 > need to do this.

I complained loudly about Gabucino "the PR department from hell" and
how he handled the "Debian affair" some time ago.  I still have a
draft of a mail about the subject lying around that I never finished
properly.  Yes, I think that we need to rethink who can say what in
the name of the project and act in which way on its behalf.  That was
what that mail should be all about.  Seems like the time has come to
settle this matter once and for all.

But what about the practical problems?  Who else should take the job
if Gabu does not do it (and he said on IRC that he has had enough)?
Do you have any suggestions?  It's a matter that also has to be
considered.

I still have a faint hope that this might get resolved amicably.

 > > Anyway, the worst thing we can do now is splinter and send different
 > > demands to KISS all on our own.  We need to stand united in this
 > > affair.  In order to achieve this we have to agree upon a _common_ set
 > > of goals.
 > 
 > If so, these goals must be the correct ones (in light of the GPL) and
 > the _strongest_ goals demanded by _any_ copyright holder whose code
 > might have been stolen, not the weakest possible demands (like Gabu
 > wants).

I disagree.  We should find a consent.  Whatever this consent is has
to be worked out, although it is pretty clear by now that it will most
probably not be Gabucino's position.

 > > next step.  Is there some way for us to reach a settlement with them?
 > > What should it look like?  Do we insist on forcing them to release
 > > (parts of) their code?
 > 
 > Of course. ALL of it.

IIUC they are bound by some contracts and cannot release all of their
source.  Dunno which license wins in this case, that's something to
ask a lawyer.  We might still force them to release parts of it.  If
they have signed some contracts that forbid them to release source,
that should be one more reason not to steal GPL code, IOW it's their
problem, not ours.

Diego