Seeking input from developers: glibc copyright assignment policy.

[Szabolcs Nagy]

The 07/02/2021 15:23, Craig Topham via Libc-alpha wrote:
> >>>/From: Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com <mailto:fweimer@redhat.com>> />>>/Cc: Siddhesh Poyarekar <siddhesh@gotplt.org
> <mailto:siddhesh@gotplt.org>>, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org
> <mailto:eliz@gnu.org>> />>>/Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2021 09:24:51 +0200 />>>//>>>/* Eli Zaretskii via Libc-alpha: />>>//>>>/> I'm showing text from the assignment agreement that IMO clearly says />>>/> the developer retains all the rights. />>>//>>>/No, the developer gives up copyright ownership. />>//>>/I don't understand what that means, sorry. The text says I can do />>/anything and everything I want with the code, except interfering with />>/the FSF's use of that code. So what exactly did I give up? /
> > Ownership, that is, you don't control anymore who gets to use the code
> > and under what terms.
> 
> The grant back in section 1 (d) of the FSF's copyright assignment
> gives control to the developer who can then decide who gets to use the
> code and under what terms, but the developer cannot limit how the FSF
> distributes and uses the code, which is under a free license, most
> likely the GPLv3 or later.

a copyright assignment cannot possibly "give control"
to the developer: there can be multiple projects that
require assignment (or even just a statement from the
owner) and the developer cannot contribte the same
code to those (you can only assign ownership once).

giving control over the license terms does not matter
when there are many projects that require ownership
or statement from the owner (gnu projects are just one
example). not being an owner creates real barriers for
a developer. and the only way out is to avoid any
projects that require assignment.

(this came up multiple times in the past with respect
to string and math code that many projects have their
separate copy of and fsf assignment was always in the
way to do the right thing: share the code as widely
as possible)