From: weiqigao AT a DOT crl DOT com (Weiqi Gao) Subject: Re: copyright assignment 23 May 1998 23:53:08 -0700 Message-ID: <3567283B.F8A9911.cygnus.gnu-win32@a.crl.com> References: <199805221611 DOT JAA09366 AT pacific DOT pgroup DOT com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Larry Meadows Cc: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Larry Meadows wrote: > > ----- Forwarded message from Geoffrey Noer ----- > [...] > (http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32). Note that if your changes > are more than a few lines, you will probably need to send in a > copyright assignment form and a disclaimer from your employer. (As > you would have to do for a code contribution to the Free Software > Foundation). > [...] > ----- End of forwarded message from Geoffrey Noer ----- > > That's very interesting, actually. The GPL says that if I distribute > modified binaries, then I must also make the modified source code > available. But you're saying that I also need to send a copyright > assignment form and a disclaimer with this modified source code? > > Doesn't seem quite right to me... by modifying the source code I > already agreed that I had no copyright, by virtue of the GPL. By modifying the source, you have agreed that your code will be GPLed. You still holds the copyright. By assigning your copyright to Cygnus or FSF, you assign your copyright to them. The code will be GPLed either way, only the copyright holder is different. > I can see the desire for such a thing, but it seems to discourage > people from contributing patches and seems unnecessary. It is super cautious on the part of FSF and Cygnus. But looking at the recent Linux trademark disbutes, and the Netscape "Save As" patent infrigement suites, I would say they are doing the right thing. -- Weiqi Gao weiqigao AT a DOT crl DOT com - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".