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Re: That dwarf2read patch i just submitted
The person has submitted a few other patches, always in that same
time period (spring of 99). I haven't find an assignment from the FSF.
Time to ask.
Elena
Kevin Buettner writes:
> On Oct 23, 4:38pm, Daniel Berlin wrote:
>
> > Sigh.
> > I'll redo the work then.
> > Is there any way i can give him credit, without having to get a
> > copyright assignment from him?
>
> In this case, you should first check to see if he has a copyright
> assignment on file. If he does, there's no problem.
>
> If he doesn't, contact him and find out if he's willing to provide
> one. This can be the hard part because, although he may be perfectly
> willing, his employer might not be. (The employer also has to sign a
> copyright disclaimer.) There's an added difficulty if he's changed
> employer's since writing the patch. (A former employer may be even
> more unwilling than normal to sign a copyright disclaimer for work
> done by an ex-employee.)
>
> I know from first hand experience that it can be difficult to get the
> employer to sign the copyright disclaimer. Some are perfectly
> willing, but their legal departments decide to hold things up.
>
> Anyway... if you have trouble getting a disclaimer from either
> the individual in question or their employer, I suppose that you
> could try rewriting the patch yourself. But it is probably better
> describe in English (without using code) what needs to be done
> to this file and get someone else who hasn't seen the patch to
> do it. I suppose you could then provide credit by saying something
> like "Inspired by (but not based on) the work of ...".
>
> Or, if you had an obviously different implementation, that too
> would likely suffice.
>
> If you do decide to reimplement Brian's patch, you should seek Andrew
> Cagney's opinion first in order to make sure that your approach is
> acceptable to the FSF.
>
> Kevin
>