This contains the standard Cygwin copyright assignment form. The essence of it is that we need to own the code we distribute. This agreement gives us ownership of your changes but promises that you retain the right to use your contributed changes as you see fit. Because employers often can claim ownership over things that employees write, you may also have to get your employer to sign a disclaimer that says that they have no claim to the changes you are contributing. Thanks for your contribution to Cygwin! ------------------------------> snip <-------------------------------- The way to assign copyright to Red Hat is to sign an assignment contract. This is what legally makes Red Hat the copyright holder so that we can register the copyright on the new version. I'm assuming that you wrote these changes yourself; if other people wrote parts, we may need papers from them. If you are employed to do programming (even at a university), or have made an agreement with your employer or school saying it owns programs you write, then you and we need a signed piece of paper from your employer disclaiming rights to the program. The disclaimer should be signed by a vice president or general manager of the company. If you can't get at them, anyone else authorized to license software produced there will do. Here is a sample wording for Jane Doe who works for ReallyBig Corporation: ReallyBig Corporation hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the changes and enhancements made by Jane Doe to the Cygwin program, including any future revisions of these changes and enhancements. ReallyBig Corporation affirms that it has no other intellectual property interest that would undermine this release, or the use of the Cygwin program, and will do nothing to undermine it in the future. , 1 April 1998 Joe Manage, Vice President, ReallyBig Corp. (If your employer says they do have an intellectual property claim that could conflict with the use of the program, then please put me in touch with a suitable representative of the company, so that we can negotiate what to do about it.) IMPORTANT: When you talk to your employer, *no matter what instructions they have given you*, don't fail to show them the sample disclaimer above, or a disclaimer with the details filled in for your specific case. Companies are usually willing to sign a disclaimer without any fuss. If you make your request less specific, you may open Pandora's box and cause a long and unnecessary delay. Below is the assignment contract that we usually use. You need to replace "NAME OF PERSON" with your full name, print it out, sign it, and snail it to: Gary Lamb Red Hat, Inc. 120 W. Lincoln Street Tullahoma, Tennessee 37388 USA Please try to print the whole first page below on a single piece of paper. If it doesn't fit on one printed page, put it on two sides of a single piece of paper. Don't forget to put down the date when you sign! Spell out the month name--don't use a number for the month. Dates using a number for the month are ambiguous; 2/8/98 means one thing in the US and another in Europe. Snail a copy of the employer's disclaimer as well. Please send me email about what you decide to do. If you have any questions, or would like something to be changed, ask rnaftaly@redhat.com via email. Please do not send questions to the cygwin mailing list(s). ASSIGNMENT For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which I acknowledge, I, NAME OF PERSON, hereby transfer to Red Hat, Inc. ("Red Hat") my entire right, title, and interest (including all rights under copyright) in my changes and enhancements to the Cygwin library, subject to the conditions below. These changes and enhancements are herein called the "Work". The work hereby assigned shall also include any future revisions of these changes and enhancements hereafter made by me. Upon thirty days' prior written notice, Red Hat agrees to grant me non-exclusive rights to use the Work (i.e. my changes and enhancements, not the program which I enhanced) as I see fit; (and Red Hat's rights shall otherwise continue unchanged). I hereby agree that if I have or acquire hereafter any patent or interface copyright or other intellectual property interest dominating the program enhanced by the Work (or use of that program), such dominating interest will not be used to undermine the effect of this assignment, i.e. Red Hat and the general public will be licensed to use, in that program and its derivative works, without royalty or limitation, the subject matter of the dominating interest. This license provision will be binding on my heirs, assignees, or other successors to the dominating interest, as well as on me. I hereby represent and warrant that I am the sole copyright holder for the Work and that I have the right and power to enter into this contract. I hereby indemnify and hold harmless Red Hat, its officers, employees, and agents against any and all claims, actions or damages (including attorney's reasonable fees) asserted by or paid to any party on account of a breach or alleged breach of the foregoing warranty. I make no other express or implied warranty (including without limitation, in this disclaimer of warranty, any warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). Agreed: [signature] Date [Write the month with LETTERS]: For Red Hat, [signature] Phone Number: [phone number] Please do not delete the control-l character before this line. Please print this as a separate page. [For the copyright registration, what country are you a citizen of? What year were you born?] [Please write your email address here.] [Please write your snail address here, so we can snail a copy back to you.] [Which files have you changed so far, and which new files have you written so far?]