James Gosling: on the Java Road

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20061108 Wednesday November 08, 2006


Contribution agreements considered "just stupid"

I happen to agree with the commentator on my doc.java.sun.com post. There ought to be a better way. But contribution agreements are remarkable common. Take a look at the one that the Apache Project uses. It's even longer than ours. They are an inevitable consequence of the way that the laws work. They should be changed, but it'll take a long time to bring the laws into the modern era. In the meantime, the laws are what they are. We've worked pretty hard to come up with the simplest scheme that fulfils the legal requirements. Permalink Comments [9]

Comments:

Clearly the previous commentator had a lot to say. I, however, will be brief. There are 7 of us slaving away in a college computer lab late into the evening. Foreheads are furrowed, brows are wrinkled, and expressions of dejection cloud every sweet face. The beginnings of tears can be seen in our eyes. Mr. Gosling, I would like to say that this is all.your.fault.your.stupid.language.makes.life.hard.

Posted by Kate on November 08, 2006 at 07:11 PM PST #

脸丢大了，真没良心，由于各种原因中国人贡献本来就小，还让你这种人给抹杀了

Posted by WangHui on November 08, 2006 at 08:48 PM PST #

And Mr/Miss Kate --'all.your.fault.your.stupid.language.makes.life.hard' yep mind u r words... and..one more thing... don't go to computer lab late in the evening.

Posted by daniel on November 10, 2006 at 10:54 AM PST #

if.you.java.code.looks.like.this.something.went.wrong I don't think the license is that bad, but it should be submittable electronically.

Posted by Ivan on November 10, 2006 at 12:58 PM PST #

To all people who consider Java a stupid language: just go on and invent a smarrrrrter language that takes.the.world.by.storm.as.Java.did in the latest eleven years. It's sooo easy.

Posted by Fabrizio Giudici on November 10, 2006 at 03:02 PM PST #

Dear mister Gosling, I read on some websites that Sun chooses the gpl licence to open source Java, is this correct? I realy hope this is not true, that Sun infects Java with the gpl virus. I hope you can write something about this topic if posible. Thanks, Evert Tighchelaar jr

Posted by Evert Tigchelaar jr on November 10, 2006 at 03:47 PM PST #

Unfortunately, these contribution agreements are incompatible with the German copyright law Urheberrechtsgesetz (UrhG). On the other hand, Apache's Individual Contributor License Agreement is. But IANAL.

Posted by messi on November 11, 2006 at 03:07 PM PST #

Life is hard, Kate. Be happy you're not slaving away in assembler, m'kay? You write well. Go be an English major.

Posted by Greg Barton on November 12, 2006 at 09:40 AM PST #

I think, killing agreement = reduce the fax cost, that is strange right, in internet era, we still to fax the agreement

Posted by Frans Thamura on November 13, 2006 at 03:55 AM PST #

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