From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: CLAHub and the FSF copyright assignment Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:24:33 -0500 Message-ID: References: <2F7CC5C4-503C-4867-87DC-644F8E4862E4@seanallred.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1418531109 2911 80.91.229.3 (14 Dec 2014 04:25:09 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 04:25:09 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Sean Allred Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Dec 14 05:25:02 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Y00ju-0004kU-HI for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 14 Dec 2014 05:25:02 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:34972 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Y00jt-0001DJ-W3 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:25:01 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:34824) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Y00ja-0001D5-Va for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:24:50 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Y00jT-0000ro-Eq for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:24:42 -0500 Original-Received: from ironport2-out.teksavvy.com ([206.248.154.181]:27036) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Y00jT-0000rk-Aj for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:24:35 -0500 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AjwPAOwQflTO+ILA/2dsb2JhbABbgweDYIVaxR0EAgKBJBcBAQEBAQF8hAMBAQMBViMFCwsOJhIUGA0kiEoJ1lkBAQEBBgEBAQEekG8HhEgFiwGSMY9zggqBeIQZIYJ3AQEB X-IPAS-Result: AjwPAOwQflTO+ILA/2dsb2JhbABbgweDYIVaxR0EAgKBJBcBAQEBAQF8hAMBAQMBViMFCwsOJhIUGA0kiEoJ1lkBAQEBBgEBAQEekG8HhEgFiwGSMY9zggqBeIQZIYJ3AQEB X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="5.07,502,1413259200"; d="scan'208";a="100986504" Original-Received: from 206-248-130-192.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO ceviche.home) ([206.248.130.192]) by ironport2-out.teksavvy.com with ESMTP/TLS/DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA; 13 Dec 2014 23:24:34 -0500 Original-Received: by ceviche.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id D1251660D3; Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:24:33 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <2F7CC5C4-503C-4867-87DC-644F8E4862E4@seanallred.com> (Sean Allred's message of "Sat, 13 Dec 2014 11:53:15 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 206.248.154.181 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:180052 Archived-At: > Can GNU/the FSF use this resource to fulfill its copyright assignment? I do not understand how it could help with the assignment process, which is mostly a process of getting the paperwork to sign, signing it and returning it. This process can be done "fully paperbased" and in some cases it can be done partly electronically or fully electronically. The details change overtime, as FSF's lawyers work out new procedures that are more convenient while still being legally valid. I don't think there's much tool that can be help streamline this process (tho maybe a lawyer could help, or maybe lobbying some governments to change regulations). Of course, there's the rest of the issue which is to figure out who has signed the needed paperwork already and who hasn't, and how to make sure all your contributors have signed paperwork. As maintainer of a GNU package, I have access to this "copyright.list" information, but the FSF does not make this info public, since it could probably be considered as a breach of privacy. Maybe we could come up with some way to make it easier than having to ask one of those people with access to the copyright.list. Maybe we could create an "Emacs Copyright Assigned" (ECA) GPG key, and signing a GPG key with this ECA key would mean "this guy has signed the paperwork already". Then people can publicly put this signature on their key if they want to advertise the fact that they have signed the copyright paperwork. Or they can show you the key in private if they don't want it to be public. Stefan