> 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"? I do not know what high-profile projects you are refering to, you will have to ask them why they think they can ignore a paper trail. Having one copyright holder solves many issues when enforcing copyright, you do not need to contact all parties. There is a short article on why you should assign copyright to the FSF at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html
