how much right do I have on my project, if there are patches by others?

[Matthew Flaschen]

Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Matthew Flaschen (matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu):
> 
>> It's far from certain that they are correct about this.  Others, such as
>> the Apache project, would seem to disagree.
> 
> There was a time, and it probably was for around 3 seconds some decades
> ago, when I was actually impressed, when informed in this headline-style
> fashion that someone had disagreed.  (Then I discovered Usenet.)

Great.  I'm not impressed that ESR is correct, either, simply because he
happened to publish an essay.

>> They have clearly defined coauthors, but still require broad and
>> explicit contributor licenses
>> (http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt) and take the view that only
>> the foundation (not the coauthors) can relicense.
> 
> Your assumption that the terms of someone's contract somehow indicates
> the shape of copyright law is hereby noted with wry amusement.

I'm not citing it as proof of the state of copyright law.  I'm citing it
as proof that there is no consensus that ESR's view is correct.

Matt Flaschen