[gentoo-dev] Old copyright assignments

[gentoo-dev] Old copyright assignments

[Ulrich Mueller]

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Dear fellow (active and retired) developers,

We (rich0, alicef, and myself) are currently working on a new Gentoo
copyright policy, whose current draft version can be seen at [1].
One of its goals is to cover situations where Gentoo isn't the main
copyright holder in a file. Connected to this is the question how
accurate the first line of every ebuild is, which claims copyright
for the Gentoo Foundation.

Reportedly, in the past at least some Gentoo developers signed
copyright assignment forms [2] to Gentoo Technologies, Inc., and
possibly later to the Gentoo Foundation. Bug 140286 [3] suggests
that this no longer took place since around 2005.

Now my question to you is if (and when) you have signed such a
copyright assignment form? Please reply to me personally; I'll post
a summary to the gentoo-project list later.

Old mailing list postings also show that several devs have refused
to sign the form; please also reply to me if this applies to you.

Thank you in advance,
Ulrich


[1] https://dev.gentoo.org/~ulm/glep-copyrightpolicy.html
[2] https://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/devrel/copyright/assignment.pdf?revision=1.1
[3] https://bugs.gentoo.org/140286

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[gentoo-dev] Re: Old copyright assignments

[Ulrich Mueller]

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>>>>> On Thu, 19 Apr 2018, Ulrich Mueller wrote:

> Reportedly, in the past at least some Gentoo developers signed
> copyright assignment forms [2] to Gentoo Technologies, Inc., and
> possibly later to the Gentoo Foundation. Bug 140286 [3] suggests
> that this no longer took place since around 2005.

> Now my question to you is if (and when) you have signed such a
> copyright assignment form? Please reply to me personally; I'll post
> a summary to the gentoo-project list later.

So far, I have received 7 replies, and I don't expect many more to
come in (but please still reply, especially if you *have* signed the
form). Here comes a summary:

One former developer said that he had signed the copyright assignment
form for GTI; he joined in June 2004. (We also have the actual form.)

Six others said that they haven't signed anything; all of them joined
after September 2006. I conclude from the replies that recruiters
have no longer asked for signing of the form then.

Ulrich

> [2] https://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/devrel/copyright/assignment.pdf?revision=1.1
> [3] https://bugs.gentoo.org/140286

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[gentoo-dev] Re: Old copyright assignments

[Ulrich Mueller]

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>>>>> On Thu, 26 Apr 2018, Ulrich Mueller wrote:

>> Reportedly, in the past at least some Gentoo developers signed
>> copyright assignment forms [2] to Gentoo Technologies, Inc., and
>> possibly later to the Gentoo Foundation. Bug 140286 [3] suggests
>> that this no longer took place since around 2005.

>> Now my question to you is if (and when) you have signed such a
>> copyright assignment form? Please reply to me personally; I'll post
>> a summary to the gentoo-project list later.

> So far, I have received 7 replies, and I don't expect many more to
> come in (but please still reply, especially if you *have* signed the
> form). Here comes a summary:

Update: Six more devs and ex-devs have replied, for a total of 13.

Three of them signed the copyright form; they joined between
December 2003 and June 2004.

Ten of the replies indicated they haven't signed anything. Of these,
two devs joined in November 2003 or before, the others in January 2006
or after,

From your replies and from other sources, the conclusion is
that copyright assignment took place only between December 2003
and June/July 2004. See also [4] for a provisional timeline (mostly
compiled by robbat2).

Thanks to all who have replied!

Ulrich

>> [2] https://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/devrel/copyright/assignment.pdf?revision=1.1
>> [3] https://bugs.gentoo.org/140286
[4] https://dev.gentoo.org/~ulm/glep-copyrightpolicy.html#key-dates-in-gentoo-copyright-history

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