Re: [Gnu-arch-users] GNU copyright assignment

[Zenaan Harkness]

> I think part of what he's mentioning is code that was contributed a 
> while ago, by someone who we may not be able to contact. FSF requires 
> everything to be signed over to them, so that they have the legal right 
> to defend it in court. The official ruling is that code that is not 
> signed over cannot be incorporated.

Actually, code that is longer than "trivial" or "insignificant in size
from a coyright perspective" or similar.

Naturally, we will need to make an effort to contact developers of such
code. Let's deal with each case as it arises.

> This may mean that code has to be pulled out of something like jblack's 
> integration branch if he wants to get it into mainline. For me the big 
> concern is who is going to audit everything, and as jblack asks, what do 
> we do when chunks have to be pulled out?

Whoever wants to contribute stuff to mainline will need to literally
sign off on it. It is therefore in their interests to ensure that the
code they are contributing is theirs to contribute.

> Not to say that I don't agree with some of the rest of what you say. 
> jblack does have a slight rebellious streak in him.

I'd like to add that I don't think a rebellious streak is a bad thing
per se. For example, a healthy dose of cynicism and rebelliousness is
perhaps a useful thing to maintain when dealing with most government
bodies.

And I would also add that, in my own experience with my own
rebelliousness, it can be quite a difficult thing to temper...

>  But there is a general concern here.

Code ownership is a valid concern that I agree with.

thanks
zen