Re: Assignment legal documents?

[Phil Edwards <phil at jaj dot com>]

On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 04:45:36PM -0700, Kendall Bennett wrote:
> I was reading about the GNU C and legal requirements for contributors, 
> and discovered that copyright has to be assigned to the FSF to 
> contribute. I tried to find the forms used to assign copyright, but they 
> don't appear to be on the web.

They aren't, unfortunately.  (Ask the FSF about this if you really want
to know why.)


> According to the web based documentation, 
> I have to request copies of the forms. It mentions that there should be 
> two different forms:
> 
> "For large changes, ask the contributor for an assignment. Send per a 
> copy of the file `/gd/gnuorg/request-assign.changes'. 
> 
> For medium to small changes, request a disclaimer by sending per the file 
> `/gd/gnuorg/request-disclaim.changes'."

And a third:

"If the contributor is likely to keep making changes, person might want
to sign an assignment for all per future changes to the program. So it is
useful to offer per that alternative. If person wants to do it that way,
send per the `/gd/gnuorg/request-assign.future'."

I assume you and your legal counsel have looked over the rest of that
web page.  :-)


> Since we are considering contributing to some GNU projects, can I get 
> copies of these forms to review with our legal counsel?

I will send them to you shortly.


Phil

-- 
I would therefore like to posit that computing's central challenge, viz. "How
not to make a mess of it," has /not/ been met.
                                                 - Edsger Dijkstra, 1930-2002