Re: mods for compiling perl && perl common packages

[Per Bothner <bothner at cygnus dot com>]

> For these particular patches, we have no legal proof that they are in
> the public domain.  The author has stated as much in e-mail, but that
> is worthless if he later decides to sue.

If the patches were submitted by email, and the auther sent his
disclaimer from the same email adress, I think we're pretty safe from
him suing us.  I suspect his only recourse would be to swear that
somebody else forged his disclaimer, or forced him, and I don't think
that should be major concern.

The real concern is the person submitting the patches is not the
legal owner of the patches, either because he stole someone else's
patches (plagarism), or (more likely) his employer claims the
author did not have authority or permission to disclaim copyright.
I think that is the real reason to be concerned, and to demand
formal paperwork.  (A similar concern arises for students who use
University facilities, especially if they are on some form of
scholarship.)

	--Per Bothner
Cygnus Solutions     bothner@cygnus.com     http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner