Re: Display X-Face and save space

[Dave Love <d.love@dl.ac.uk>]

>>>>> "WH" == Wes Hardaker <wjhardaker@ucdavis.edu> writes:

 WH> You know, I really don't understand the copyright assignment
 WH> issue.  I mean, if I release the code under the GPL then it
 WH> should satisfy the FSF.

I don't speak for them, but the FSF is surely happy that you release
free software.  Thanks.

 WH> Why they need to "own" the copyright makes no sense to me.

I'm not sure making sense is relevant in law.  This is definitely
major grief for us as maintainers, but has to be taken seriously. :-(

The longstanding legal advice -- apparently not just to the FSF -- is
that for defence in court against violations of the licence there
should be a single copyright holder, or perhaps only a few.  I'm not
sure of the exact position; maybe all holders of copyright in a
combined work have to be involved.  In exceptional circumstances there
is a specific licence to the FSF instead of assignment.

By the way, the contract licenses the assigner to do as they like with
their contribution, so assigning loses nothing of practical
importance.  It's a legal technicality.

 WH> Filling out the form once wouldn't prevent me from writing more
 WH> code in the future to the same piece and that code wouldn't be
 WH> owned by them (unless they explicitly cover future modifications
 WH> in their form).

That's what it normally says.