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


From: Pádraig Brady
Subject: Re: Seeking input from developers: glibc copyright assignment policy.
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2021 22:08:25 +0100
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:84.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/84.0

On 15/06/2021 13:03, Eric Blake wrote:
On Mon, Jun 14, 2021 at 01:39:26PM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
A proposal to change the glibc copyright assignment policy is being
circulated on libc-alpha. The email thread starts at
<https://sourceware.org/pipermail/libc-alpha/2021-June/127581.html>, and the
text of the email seeking input is at the end of this message.

I'm sending this to bug-gnulib because we copy some files directly from
glibc and eventually I expect these files to be affected. The simplest
approach I see for Gnulib is to adopt glibc's policy, at least for files or
code copied from glibc.

I would like to make sure the FSF legal department doesn't see any
holes in the plan, but I'm certainly okay as going on record as being
in favor of the plan.

I am in favor of the plan also.
I feel copyright assignment is a significant _initial_ hurdle to contributions,
where the potential to deter contribution outweighs any potential advantages.

I recall how long it took for me to get
permission to sign assignment papers from my previous employer, for
work I was doing in my spare time, and being able to use the DCO
instead would have made my efforts easier at that time.  (My current
employer already has a blanket copyright assignment on file for all
employees, but not everyone has a company that willing to promote open
source involvement.)

Yes the fact that one needs to repeat this process
as one changes employers is very awkward.
(In my case it was the reverse, in going from a company with
blanket copyright assignment, to one where I needed to
navigate the internal processes to get an assignment.)

I do wonder how diligent people are in general in this regard anyway.
I.e. how valid all current assignments are given the
frequency of employer changes and the awkwardness involved.

thanks,
Pádraig



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