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Do you know what GNU's rationale is for requiring copyright assignment?

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.en.html

Because it makes it easier for them, as owner, to deal with copyright violations.

conversely, what's the argument against assigning copyright? I'm pretty sure the EFF can be trusted to keep nano open source.

> I'm pretty sure the EFF

Do you mean FSF here?

oops. yah.

I'm no expert, but I believe the rationale is to simplify relicensing (GPLv2 -> GPLv3, for instance). I also think the papers disallow dual licensing the project with a proprietary license.

There's more discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11953703

Reply on news.ycombinator.com