Re: Seeking input from developers: glibc copyright assignment policy.

[Paul Smith]

On Tue, 2021-06-15 at 22:08 +0100, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> Yes the fact that one needs to repeat this process as one changes
> employers is very awkward.

This is exactly what I was worried about with my previous message:
people saying "it's awkward to get my employer to assign copyright so
I'd rather use a DCO" when they are not legally allowed to do that.

A DCO is not a magic bullet.  If your employer has copyright to the
changes you made then the DCO is useless to you because the ownership
is not yours to certify; you'll STILL have to get your employer to
agree to it.  If you have the copyright yourself then you don't need
your employer to sign anything in the first place!

Allowing contributors to follow a simpler process doesn't make the
situation less complicated, it just makes it easier to ignore.  But
ignoring it doesn't make it go away.

The assignment is awkward, and it is extra effort, but that effort is
not useless or wasted.  IMO it's important for the project that people
pay attention to this and handle it BEFORE their code is accepted.