Re: [PATCHES] 21.3.50 for Cygwin: patch 7

[Kim F. Storm]

Joe Buehler <address@hidden> writes:

> Kim F. Storm wrote:
> 
> > We require papers for all "non-tiny" changes that are installed in CVS.
> > In this case, the file builds on source "owned by FSF", but although
> > that means that the GPL applies to the changed file, that doesn't make
> > FSF "owner" of any work derived from that source.
> > So if the file has been changed "outside" FSF, we require papers!
> 
> Could someone point me to an explanation of all this?  I never had to
> sign a thing in years past when contributing to GNU emacs.  Emacs
> has been a huge help for me on my jobs since the 80's, and I want to
> contribute back, but it appears to have become something of a pain
> to do so.

It's not that difficult...

Before you can contribute any major changes to _any_ GNU software
and have it incorporated into the _official_ releases, you need to
sign over your copyright to the FSF.

This typically amounts to signing two pieces of paper:

- one paper [disclaimer] signed by your employer, disclaiming the
  right to any of the code that you will be giving to the FSF, and

- one paper [assignment] signed by yourself, signing over the
  copyright of your past, present, and future [or a specific piece of]
  work (on GNU Emacs) to the FSF.

Even if you have a "generic assigment" covering all changes to Emacs,
you will typically sign a specific assignment paper if you contribute
a larger piece of work (such as a lisp package).

You can get more information from <address@hidden>.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk