From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The copyright issue Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:40:34 +0900 Message-ID: <8762zkl259.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <19546.32875.515000.117266@gargle.gargle.HOWL> <19549.44879.848292.639521@rgr.rgrjr.com> <19549.49818.270000.981978@gargle.gargle.HOWL> <19549.61887.613440.141458@rgr.rgrjr.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1281337934 25705 80.91.229.12 (9 Aug 2010 07:12:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 07:12:14 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Uday S Reddy , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rogers-emacs@rgrjr.dyndns.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Aug 09 09:12:11 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OiMWm-0001dI-Cd for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:12:09 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:58972 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OiMWk-0008Fl-RF for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:12:06 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=56896 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OiMWK-00089g-Py for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:11:43 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OiMWJ-0004KK-3x for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:11:40 -0400 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:53383) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OiMWI-0004Jt-RR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:11:39 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24E8E1535AE; Mon, 9 Aug 2010 15:41:56 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 741961A46B1; Mon, 9 Aug 2010 15:40:34 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <19549.61887.613440.141458@rgr.rgrjr.com> X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta29) "garbanzo" ed3b274cc037 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:128453 Archived-At: rogers-emacs@rgrjr.dyndns.org writes: > If it is indeed GPL software. IIRC, somebody once contributed code > that his employer later claimed was not his to contribute. Having > clear ownership avoids such hassles. The assignment has nothing to do with that, however. What's necessary in that case is not an assignment by the author, but a disclaimer of interest (ownership) by the employer. > At the very least, the contributor must claim to be the owner; if > that's not true, it's not the FSF's fault. An assignment clearly involves a claim by the contributor to be an owner. All in all, the assignment policy can't be justified as a matter of "prudence". The assignment itself only minimally decreases the risk of unclear ownership to the project. The employer disclaimers are important for risk management, but the assignments are pretty clearly mainly desirable in order that the FSF may carry out its active missions of defending existing GPL software against license violations and copyright infringement, encouraging use of the GPL for software previously covered by other licenses (whether proprietary or permissive), and (perhaps the largest use in practice) smooth execution of changes in licensing strategy (eg, the introduction of the FDL for existing manuals).