[implementations-list] Re: [gnu.org #393190] Dear FSF clerk, here are all my questions about copyright assigment

[Jason Spiro]

2008/12/1 Donald R Robertson III via RT <copyright-clerk at fsf.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> It is great to hear that you are interested in contributing to Emacs.
> There's actually a bit of process for getting your work included in
> Emacs that I'm not sure you have gone through yet. If you have, I
> apologize. You should go to https://savannah.gnu.org, if you are not
> already a member there, then sign up and login. Then go to the Emacs
> page, then click on the members list. There is a link there to a form
> for requesting inclusion on the project. We won't need to have an
> assignment on file until you go through this process and have your work
> included.
>
> Putting your work in the public domain is okay, as such work can be
> included in the GNU Project. The only issue really is that proprietary
> developers can use your work if it is in the public domain.
>
> As for the rest of your questions, I think we should just hold off on
> them until we know that the work is going to be included. It's better to
> have someone take a look at a work before determining whether an
> assignment is needed, and that takes a bit of time to do. If the work is
> not included in Emacs, then we can about other options you might use to
> get your work distributed freely.
>
> Thanks again for your interest in contributing, and good luck.
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Donald R. Robertson, III, J.D.
> Assignment Administrator
> Free Software Foundation
> 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
> Boston, MA 02110
> Phone +1-617-542-5942
> Fax +1-617-542-2652

Hi Mr. Robertson,

No, I have not applied to get either of the two works into Emacs yet.
I and others agree it that Vimpulse is too buggy to get into Emacs
yet.  And I don't care enough about viper-in-more-modes to try to get
it into Emacs.  But I want to make sure the projects can easily get
into Emacs when needed.  So I think I will get all the contributors to
release their contributions to the public domain.  I will probably do
so by asking them to go through the clickthrough public domain
dedication process at
http://creativecommons.org/license/publicdomain-2 and then forward the
email receipt they get to the bug tracker.  Do you think that is a
good and safe method for people to dedicate work to the public domain,
that will work no matter what country they come from (e.g. Canada,
Italy, China)?

If you reply, please make sure to Reply to All.

-Jason