On 26 April 2010 21:28, Ian Lance Taylor <i...@google.com> wrote: > Jonathan Corbet <cor...@lwn.net> writes: > >> What you agree to is the developers certificate of origin (DCO), which >> says you have the right to contribute the code to the kernel. No >> copyright assignment takes place. Trust me, I have thousands of lines >> of code in the kernel, and the copyright remains mine. > > The FSF permits something like this as well, in the form of a > copyright disclaimer. The FSF prefers to get an assignment, but a > disclaimer is also acceptable. The important point is the explicit > signature.
And how are potential contributors supposed to know this? If there is something that I can take from this thread is: * The reasons for the copyright assignment/disclaimer, and their legal effects are totally misunderstood by almost any potential contributor and by a large number of existing contributors. After the whole thread, I am perhaps a bit more confused than before. It would be extremely useful if anyone that feels confident on the subject wrote a FAQ-like document in the wiki that we could use as a reference for the future. Otherwise, I feel that all the heated discussion will be for nothing. * The process is overly complex, obscure, confusing and slow. It does not seem that it needs to be so. It is scaring away potential contributors and slowing down GCC development. Couldn't the SC intercede with the FSF to make it as simpler (and clear) as possible? In the ideal world, a web form would be sufficient to explain all details and gather all required information. Cheers, Manuel.
