Re: On Contributing To Emacs

[Akira Kyle <akira@akirakyle.com>]

On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 2:23 PM Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> I was talking about the copyright assignment, but you're talking about
> the employer copyright disclaimer.  They are needed for the same
> situation, but in the specifics they are completely different.
>

Sorry I wasn't specific in my language. I was not aware there was also
this employer copyright disclaimer until I received the email from
assign@gnu.org.

> The speed of processing assignments is a matter of how fast the FSF
> staff do that job.  A couple of years ago, we made that much faster
> and more reliable.
>
> Obtaining the employer disclaimer is between you and your employer.
> The FSF staff have no way to speed that up; they can't do it for you.
>
> The employer disclaimer has nothing to do with being a student at a
> university.  In the US, a university cannot claim copyright on a
> student's writings just because perse is a student.  If the work is
> for a class, or a private project, the university has no claim, unless
> perse substantially uses some special facilities to do it.  (Not just
> the internet, printers, ordinary student computing, and email
> accounts.)  The university will give you a booklet describing this
> policy.
>
> The case where a university does have a claim is when the student is
> also an employee and the work is part of per _job_.  Then it's like
> any other employment.  We need to know that per employer does not make
> a legal claim to that work.
>
> That applies to you because (from what you said) you have a research
> job and the work you're doing on Emacs might be considered part of it.
>
> But the university doesn't have to considered it part of that job.
> What we do is ask the university to affirm that it does not consider
> your changes to Emacs to be work done for your job.
>
> Normally, the person you should discuss this with is your supervisor.
> A supervisor is supposed to know how to do this.  If yours doesn't
> know, perse will at least know which office to ask.  (It may be the
> "technology licensing office" or (yuck!) "intellectual property
> office" (see https://gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html).)  If you show
> per the form the FSF staff send you, you could get this going next
> week.
>
> You can ask the FSF staff for advice about how to go about this, but I
> expect they will tell you the same thing I said here.
>
> If the university objects, then you should show the FSF staff the
> response you got.  At that point, they can help work something out
> with the university.  But this only rarely happens, so don't worry
> about it now.
>

I wish this process was more transparent than "send an email to
assign@gnu.org and wait for a response". Why can't there be some
webpage that outlines the process along with the necessary forms that
I can follow and collect then send to assign@gnu.org? Such a page
could then link to resources from experts which explain the issues
(for example I find this recent piece quite compelling:
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jun/30/who-should-own-foss-copyrights/)
and offer a FAQ. Such resources exist but I, as a relatively
uninformed newcomer to such issues, have to find them myself, adding
to the feeling that the process is burdensome.

I'm not trying to argue the underlying issues aren't important here,
just that the transparency and "user experience" are very much
lacking. Given the importance of assignments to emacs, perhaps there
should be some more substantial text stating the reasoning specific to
emacs as to why the project feels it is the right course (as opposed
to say guix which does not require assignments). Without such clarity
for the justifications, and the steps to take, the process feels more
burdensome.

>   > I also have a question that I might as well ask here in case anyone
>   > knows the answer: part of my funding comes from the US government and
>   > work I publish under that funding must be exempt from copyright (i.e.
>   > public domain). Is this then incompatible with the fsf copyright
>   > assignment,
>
> Indeed, that is an issue.  You can't assign the copyright if you don't
> have the copyright.  (That's also the reason we need employer
> disclaimers.)
>
>                 and hence mean I cannot make contributions to such GNU
>   > software on time I spend as part of that funding,
>
> It's not a problem at all.  Instead of an assignment, you can sign
> something different affirming that this work is in the public domain.
> It's an unusual thing to do, but not difficult.  The FSF staff can
> help you out.
>

Okay thanks.