Re: GNU project _does_ discriminate contributors by classes (was: A GNU “social contract”?)

[DJ Delorie]

> if a contributor-to-be happens to be an employee, FSF does not trust
> his words about origin of his contribution,

This seems reasonable to me in the USA.  Many companies have a clause in
their contracts that say that the company owns anything the employee
creates during their tenure, *even off hours*.  Given how complex
employment contracts are, it's reasonable to ask for a legal disclaimer
from employers, much like we ask for assignments from contributors.
It's not about trusting the people involved, it's about protecting
against people *not* involved who may have bad intentions, who may take
advantage of honest mistakes.

The FSF has always been careful about legal clarity of their ownership
of GNU contributions; employer disclaimers is just another one of these.

Also consider that some of us might be using the USA legal definition of
"class" here wrt discrimination:

  https://definitions.uslegal.com/p/protected-class/

Defining your own classes outside of those might lead to
misunderstandings.