On: How the .NET Foundation kerfuffle became a brouhah...

[robmen]

I remember when I first released the WiX Toolset publicly to SourceForge. I was up all night getting CVS prepped and writing my blog entry to announce it.

But this issue now really isn't about the source control hosting provider. It isn't even about Microsoft. It's about my relationship with the .NET Foundation who (now) holds the copyright of the project I released on SourceForge over 17 years ago.

GitHub actually had the tools I needed to move the project back. Not much more I could have asked for, honestly.

[tinco → robmen]

Would you ask for the copyright back? As in, it doesn't seem like they're helping you at all, so maybe you could tell them you're leaving and you would like to have the copyright back.

It might force them to show their colors, and if anything turn the brouhaha into something more clear cut.

[robmen → tinco]

My case is a little special because I developed the WiX Toolset when I was an employee at Microsoft. I never owned the copyright (Microsoft did). So, I wouldn't be asking for the copyright back... I'd be asking for it for the first time.

And there are advantages to a legally well protected entity holding the copyright. One for example: my company (FireGiant) is "firewalled" from certain legal issues.

So I'm still contemplating the future and don't have a real answer for you yet.

[justinclift → robmen]

Interesting. From that description, it kind of sounds like you're both wanting your cake, and to eat it too?

Not sure what I'd do in your situation though. It sounds like you've put a shed load of time into improving "their" product, and don't really have much recourse if they don't want to play nice. :/

Though if you do fork it, it sounds like most of the non-MS employees would switch across to your fork?

[rndgermandude → robmen]

But you wrote a lot of code for the project since you left Microsoft, I would think? That code should be yours.

[robmen → rndgermandude]

Sure but I'm most interested in the project as a whole. And:

> And there are advantages to a legally well protected entity holding the copyright.