Toward a "modern" Emacs [LWN.net]

Toward a "modern" Emacs

Posted Sep 28, 2020 12:12 UTC (Mon) by pabs (subscriber, #43278)
In reply to: Toward a "modern" Emacs by farnz
Parent article: Toward a "modern" Emacs

I recommend negotiating copyright ownership of any freely licensed code that you write, then you don't have to involve your employer in copyright assignment paperwork at all :)

https://sfconservancy.org/contractpatch/

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Toward a "modern" Emacs

Posted Sep 28, 2020 13:06 UTC (Mon) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (1 responses)

Even on code where I own the copyright, I still have to go via my employer to get permission to sign copyright assignment forms, because of the risk of a conflict of interest between the person I'm assigning copyright to, and my employer.

And, of course, such a negotiation involves all the hassle of going through legal to get a contract change *and* then I have to go through all the hassle again to sign a copyright assignment form. Why would I bother doing any of this for a small change?

Toward a "modern" Emacs

Posted Oct 2, 2020 10:37 UTC (Fri) by kpfleming (subscriber, #23250) [Link]

Even if you own the copyrights on your own work, if you are employed as a software developer the FSF will require a disclaimer from your employer confirming that they disclaim any interest in the works you are creating and contributing. As a person at an employer who had to create a process to produce these disclaimers for our employees, it is indeed a hassle.

So, if you are employed as a software developer, you will need to get your employer to sign an FSF document either way: either a copyright assignment, or a disclaimer.