Re: mods for compiling perl && perl common packages

[Joe Buck <jbuck at synopsys 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.

> 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.

Exactly.  For most working programmers and quite a few grad students in
the US, the statement "I place this software in the public domain" is
worthless (they have no power to make it) unless also signed by the
employer, since their employer can at least in some cases assert a claim
(universities, too, are getting greedy/desparate for funds and are trying
to profit on the work of grad students employed as researchers).  This is
the real issue.  I certainly have no power to make such a statement, and
my employment agreement is not unusual.

The fact that so many free software projects are ignoring this issue is
rather disturbing, because it is a vulnerability.  Attacking the
vulnerabilities of its opponents is what Microsoft specializes in.  In
practice, the most that could happen to Linux is probably that Linus might
have to remove some device driver, but some other projects could have more
problems if Microsoft or someone else decided to be disruptive.

Example of disruption: go down lists of contributors and contact
employers.  If one is found that doesn't know anything about Linux
(because the person was working on it on the side), present the Linux
work in as negative a form as possible, pretend that you've found evidence
that the company's intellectual property was given away, get them all
upset.  Repeat as desired, to create as much disruption (and demands
to remove code/cease and desist distribution) as possible.

Anyone who doesn't think that this can happen should ask the last ten
companies Microsoft put out of business.