Re: Copyright Assignment question

[James E Wilson <wilson at specifixinc dot com>]

On Thu, 2004-09-09 at 00:35, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> This is (apparently) the equivalent of the copyright assignment
> form for European citizens

I can't speak for FSF Europe policy.

For FSF policy in the US, putting copyright assignment forms on the web
is strongly discouraged.  The FSF has had too much trouble with people
sending in the wrong form, forms with wrong info on them, etc.  There
are multiple forms for different situations: contributing a single
patch, contributing all patches for one package, contributing an entire
new package, contributing patches written by an individual, contributing
patches written by a corporation. etc.  So FSF policy is that you first
contact the copyright clerk, give them info on what is being
contributed, then they fill out the proper form and snail mail it to
you.  You sign it, and snail mail it back to them.  Then the FSF signs
it, and snail mails the doubly signed version back to you.  This only
takes a few weeks if all goes well, and a few months if things go
poorly.

See
    http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2003-06/msg02298.html
for a sample form to fill out and send in to the FSF copyright clerk in
order to get started.

It is probably best if you use the standard FSF forms, even though a
copyright assignment is not legal in Germany.  It is legal in the US,
which is what the FSF cares about.

If you want, you could try asking the FSF copyright clerk if the FSF
Europe forms are acceptable.
-- 
Jim Wilson, GNU Tools Support, http://www.SpecifixInc.com