Re: Cray pointer paperwork is done.

[Asher Langton <langton2 at llnl dot gov>]

François-Xavier Coudert wrote:
>>I just received an email from the FSF saying that Mike Kumbera and I
>>will be added to copyright.list by the end of the day.
> 
> 
> Actually, what they received is the LLNL disclaimer. And the
> copyright.list was updated to reflect this. This is not enough.

The FSF has had that paperwork for nearly three months.  The last email
I received from Ted Teah (on Thursday) indicated that the matter was at
last resolved.

> Simply said, there are two possible ways for to handle the code worked
> out by employees.
>   1. The employer can have claims to own the intellectual property
> rights for the code, since it was done as part of your job (or using
> job resources, or ...). Then, there has to be an agreement between the
> employer and the FSF.

The paperwork sent to the FSF months ago seems to do this.  From my copy
(dated 7/11/05):

"EMPLOYER LICENSE OF RIGHTS

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory agrees that the software and
other authored works of the 'Released Category' (defined below) are
freely licensed to Free Software Foundation (FSF) for distribution and
sharing under its free software policies.  We grant to FSF a
royalty-free and fully paid-up worldwide license to (a) use
Modifications, (b) modify or have modified the Modifications to create
derivatives thereof, (c) compile the Modifications, (d) make or have
made products which incorporate Modifications and/or derivative works
thereof and/or products incorporating same in Binary Code and/or Source
Code form.

The Released Category comprises

(a) changes and enhancements made by Jacob Asher Langton, an employee of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to software already (as of the
time such change or enhancement is made) freely circulating under stated
terms permitting public redistribution, whether in the public domain, or
under the FSF's GNU General Public License, or under the FSF's GNU
Lesser General Public License (a.k.a. the GNU Library General Public
License), or under other such terms; and the Released Category is
defined as GNU Compiler Collection.

We make no warranty as to the quality of the material or as to the
presence or absence of rights therein of any other party, and we do not
purport to disclaim, release or grant any rights other than our own."

I'm not a lawyer, so I don't understand what is missing here.

>   2. Else, the employer can renounce to all rights to this code (which
> is why the disclaimer is for), effectively leaving you (as an
> individual) choose to do what you want with it.  In that case, you (as
> an individual) agree to assign copyright to the FSF (this is the
> second paper, the copyright assignment, signed by you, and with no
> modification to the stock form sent by the FSF).

I don't have any copyright on the code!  I never did.  The work was done
entirely on the behalf of LLNL, so I have no legal claim to the code.

> In short: Asher, you need to sign the Copyright Assignment form the
> FSF sent you, with no modification.

I signed one copy, but it was sent through LLNL's legal department, who
modified it.  Again, to the best of my knowledge, I have no legal
standing here.  I have no problem signing an unmodified Copyright
Assignment, but whether I can do so is up to the LLNL legal department.


-Asher