Date: Sun, 15 Mar 92 13:19:29 EST Subject: Assignment of code to FSF Could you place this somewhere appropriate in the Lisp Code Directory? It's the form that an author must sign in order to have his code incorporated in GNU Emacs. It would probably be useful to have at some ftp site. Thanks, -Michael Ernst mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu ---------------- cut here ---------------- The way to assign copyright to the Foundation is to sign an assignment contract. In addition, if you are employed to do programming (even at a university), or have made an agreement with your employer or school saying it owns programs you write, then you and we need a signed piece of paper from your employer or school, disclaiming rights to the program. The disclaimer should be signed by a vice president or general manager of the company. If you can't get at them, it is almost as good to find someone who signs licenses for software that is purchased. Here is a sample wording: Digital Stimulation Corporation hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program "seduce" (a program to direct assemblers to make passes at compilers under GNU Emacs) written by Hugh Heffner. , 1 April 1987 Ty Coon, President of Vice, Digital Stimulation Corp. The description of what the program does is just to make it clearer what the disclaimer covers. Below is the assignment contract that we usually use. You would need to print it out, sign it, and snail it to: Richard Stallman 545 Tech Sq rm 430 Cambridge, MA 02139 Snail a copy of the employer's disclaimer as well. Please send me email about what you decide to do. If you have any questions, or would like something to be changed, ask rms@ai.mit.edu via email. ASSIGNMENT For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which I acknowledge, I, NAME OF PERSON, hereby transfer to the Free Software Foundation, Inc. (the "Foundation") my entire right, title, and interest (including all rights under copyright) in my computer program NAME OF PROGRAM (the "Program"), subject to the conditions below. The work hereby assigned shall further include any future changes and/or enhancements hereafter made by me and transmitted by me to the Foundation for the Foundation's use, whether at the request of the Foundation or on my own initiative. Upon thirty days' prior written notice, the Foundation agrees to grant me non-exclusive rights to use the Program as I see fit; (and the Foundation's rights shall otherwise continue unchanged). For the purposes of this contract, a work "based on the Program" means any work that in whole or in part incorporates or is derived from all or part of the Program. The Foundation promises that all distribution of the Program, or of any work "based on the Program", that takes place under the control of the Foundation or its agents or assignees, shall be on terms that explicitly and perpetually permit anyone possessing a copy of the work to which the terms apply, and possessing accurate notice of these terms, to redistribute copies of the work to anyone on the same terms. These terms shall not restrict which members of the public copies may be distributed to. These terms shall not require a member of the public to pay any royalty to the Foundation or to anyone else for any permitted use of the work they apply to, or to communicate with the Foundation or its agents in any way either when redistribution is performed or on any other occasion. The Foundation promises that any program "based on the Program" offered to the public by the Foundation or its agents or assignees shall be offered in the form of machine-readable source code, in addition to any other forms of the Foundation's choosing. However, the Foundation is free to choose at its convenience the media of distribution for machine-readable source code. The Foundation promises to give or send me, upon reasonable prior notice and payment of a fee no more than twenty times the cost of the necessary materials and postage, a copy of any or all of the works "based on the Program" that it offers to the public or that it has offered within the past six months, or that it distributed for the first time within the past six months. For works that are programs, the machine-readable source code shall be included. My request shall detail whether I wish to receive all such works or specific works. My choice of works to request may affect the cost and therefore the fee. I hereby represent and warrant that I am the sole copyright holder for the Program and that I have the right and power to enter into this contract. I hereby indemnify and hold harmless the Foundation, its officers, employees, and agents against any and all claims, actions or damages (including attorney's reasonable fees) asserted by or paid to any party on account of a breach or alleged breach of the foregoing warranty. I make no other express or implied warranty (including without limitation, in this disclaimer of warranty, any warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). Agreed: [signature and date] For the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, President: [For the copyright registration, what country are you a citizen of? What year were you born? Please write the information here; sending it separately (eg. in a message) makes extra clerical work for us.] [Please write your snail address here, so we can snail a copy back to you.]