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Re: Why not contribute? (to GCC)


On 25 April 2010 18:48, Michael Witten <mfwitten@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 11:33, Richard Kenner
> <kenner@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu> wrote:
>> There's nothing to have a problem WITH! ?No assignment has taken place.
>> The statement on the web has no legal significance whatsoever. ?Unless
>> the company SIGNS something, they still own the copyright on the code
>> and can, at any time, decide they don't want it distributed.
>
> If I submit a patch to the GCC project---necessitating an assignment
> of the copyright to the FSF---then can the people of the FSF decide
> that they don't want me to distribute my own work in another project
> (proprietary or otherwise)?
>
> That is, could I actually become liable for infringing on the
> copyright of my own original work? Are we just trusting RMS not to be
> a troll (tongue-in-cheek)?

This is explicitly mentioned on the copyright assignment form from the
FSF. And the answer is NO.

On the other hand, when the assignment is implicit like for LLVM, I
really don't know. You need to ask your own lawyer (not the ones from
Apple or from the U. of Illinois).

Cheers,

Manuel.


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