note by Christopher Allan Webber

Christopher Allan Webber at 2014-01-20T03:20:31Z

I don't think I'm as bothered by CLAs as bkuhn/fontana are, but this is a pretty interesting quote:

I should note that I think if upstart did not have the CLA that it does, the rest of the FOSS world might have just improved it, and systemd might never have shown up. I suspect that the fate of bzr might be similar.

These should serve as a cautionary tale for for-profit companies requiring CLAs. [Or everyone, even.]

Nicola Busanello, Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠), aether, Susan Pinochet and 6 others likes this.

Stefano Zacchiroli, Richard Fontana, Greg Grossmeier shared this.

Speaking of bother, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7079728 (I wonder what the version with full scorn said?)

Mike Linksvayer at 2014-01-20T03:26:45Z

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I don't think CLAs themselves bother anyone, really; They're just a class of legal instruments. Kind of the same with tickets. Most people can see the need, how they ensure the safety of everyone, when it comes to most tickets (parking in a firelane, etc.) but then you have the really stupid/cash grab/abuse of power ones ($200 enforceable by loss of common area usages for allowing your one time visitor to park in your condo guest parking lot without first getting approval at the property managers sole discretion). Both examples are tickets but they're not the same. It's how they're purposed (the intent, terms, and how power is wielded, etc.) that determines if they're objectionable or not. I think it's the same idea when it comes to CLAs.

aether at 2014-01-20T21:55:14Z

I think, frankly, that the CLA situation isn't really the cause of systemd to begin and compete with upstart, but the CLA situation is a symptom of the types of problems that Canonical, Ltd. causes with its policies.

Canonical, Ltd. insists on control of every single project for which its a major contributor. I heard a rumor years ago (when Canonical, Ltd. was just getting started) that Shuttleworth thought his company could be successful easily if he could just "make himself upstream from Debian".

This way of thinking permeates his company. If Canonical, Ltd. can't be the primary developer, it seeks way to abandon a project. That goes for bzr, Mir, upstart, all of it.

The sad thing about this is that when Canonical, Ltd. "gives up" on a package, there's no hope. I think developers at other companies can sense this.

Lennart is a hard guy for some to deal with (I actually like him a lot myself, but I see why people find him frustrating), but even so, he does understand how to lead a Free Software project, and he puts the project first, his company second. Other developers can sense this, and that culture permeates systemd.

Bradley M. Kuhn at 2014-01-21T11:35:52Z

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