On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 5:34 PM, Jonathan Corbet <cor...@lwn.net> wrote: > On Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:51:17 -0400 > "Alfred M. Szmidt" <a...@gnu.org> wrote: > >> Not much can be done to either of those, the copyright assignments are >> necessary to keep GCC legally safe. > > Given that there are plenty of high-profile projects out there which > seem to be entirely safe in the absence of copyright assignment > policies, why, exactly, does GCC need one to be "legally safe"? > > Note that "copyright assignment" and "being sure that the developer > has the right to contribute the code" are two very different things.
IANAL but the copyright assignment is probably necessary for the FSF to have the rights to change the license at will (within the limitations allowed by the copyright assignment). If there are many copyright holders, like for say the linux kernel, a change of license requires the approval of at least all major copyright holders, IIUC. Ciao! Steven
