[gnuastro-commits] master 0857d5d 2/2: Book: link to FSF's Contributor FAQ page on copyright assignment

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

branch: master
commit 0857d5da9a90227310729d58e444e084f5678881
Author: Mohammad Akhlaghi <mohammad@akhlaghi.org>
Commit: Mohammad Akhlaghi <mohammad@akhlaghi.org>

    Book: link to FSF's Contributor FAQ page on copyright assignment
    
    Yesterday I saw that FSF has added this page to help describe the reasons
    for copyright assignment. With this commit it has been added to the
    copyright assignment section of the book.
---
 doc/gnuastro.texi | 82 ++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 56 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/gnuastro.texi b/doc/gnuastro.texi
index cc5cdb1..12e0678 100644
--- a/doc/gnuastro.texi
+++ b/doc/gnuastro.texi
@@ -32207,69 +32207,39 @@ help you.
 @node Copyright assignment, Commit guidelines, Contributing to Gnuastro, 
Contributing to Gnuastro
 @subsection Copyright assignment
 
-Gnuastro's copyright is owned by the FSF. Professor Eben Moglen, of the
-Columbia University Law School has given a nice summary of the reasons for
-this at @url{https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign}. Below we are copying
-it verbatim for self consistency (in case you are offline or reading in
-print).
+@cindex Free Software Foundation
+Gnuastro's copyright is owned by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to ensure 
that Gnuastro always remains free.
+The FSF has also provided a 
@url{https://www.fsf.org/licensing/contributor-faq, Contributor FAQ} to further 
clarify the reasons, so we encourage you to read it.
+Professor Eben Moglen, of the Columbia University Law School has given a nice 
summary of the reasons for this at 
@url{https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign}.
+Below we are copying it verbatim for self consistency (in case you are offline 
or reading in print).
 
 @quotation
-Under US copyright law, which is the law under which most free
-software programs have historically been first published, there are
-very substantial procedural advantages to registration of
-copyright. And despite the broad right of distribution conveyed by the
-GPL, enforcement of copyright is generally not possible for
-distributors: only the copyright holder or someone having assignment
-of the copyright can enforce the license. If there are multiple
-authors of a copyrighted work, successful enforcement depends on
-having the cooperation of all authors.
-
-In order to make sure that all of our copyrights can meet the
-record keeping and other requirements of registration, and in order to
-be able to enforce the GPL most effectively, FSF requires that each
-author of code incorporated in FSF projects provide a copyright
-assignment, and, where appropriate, a disclaimer of any work-for-hire
-ownership claims by the programmer's employer. That way we can be sure
-that all the code in FSF projects is free code, whose freedom we can
-most effectively protect, and therefore on which other developers can
-completely rely.
+Under US copyright law, which is the law under which most free software 
programs have historically been first published, there are very substantial 
procedural advantages to registration of copyright.
+And despite the broad right of distribution conveyed by the GPL, enforcement 
of copyright is generally not possible for distributors: only the copyright 
holder or someone having assignment of the copyright can enforce the license.
+If there are multiple authors of a copyrighted work, successful enforcement 
depends on having the cooperation of all authors.
+
+In order to make sure that all of our copyrights can meet the record keeping 
and other requirements of registration, and in order to be able to enforce the 
GPL most effectively, FSF requires that each author of code incorporated in FSF 
projects provide a copyright assignment, and, where appropriate, a disclaimer 
of any work-for-hire ownership claims by the programmer's employer.
+That way we can be sure that all the code in FSF projects is free code, whose 
freedom we can most effectively protect, and therefore on which other 
developers can completely rely.
 @end quotation
 
-Please get in touch with the Gnuastro maintainer (currently Mohammad
-Akhlaghi, mohammad -at- akhlaghi -dot- org) to follow the procedures. It is
-possible to do this for each change (good for for a single contribution),
-and also more generally for all the changes/additions you do in the future
-within Gnuastro. So if you have already assigned the copyright of your work
-on another GNU software to the FSF, it should be done again for
-Gnuastro. The FSF has staff working on these legal issues and the
-maintainer will get you in touch with them to do the paperwork. The
-maintainer will just be informed in the end so your contributions can be
-merged within the Gnuastro source code.
-
-Gnuastro will gratefully acknowledge (see @ref{Acknowledgments}) all the
-people who have assigned their copyright to the FSF and have thus helped to
-guarantee the freedom and reliability of Gnuastro. The Free Software
-Foundation will also acknowledge your copyright contributions in the Free
-Software Supporter: @url{https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter} which
-will circulate to a very large community (222,882 people in January 2021).
-See the archives for some examples and subscribe to receive
-interesting updates. The very active code contributors (or developers) will
-also be recognized as project members on the Gnuastro project web page (see
-@ref{Gnuastro project webpage}) and can be given a @code{gnu.org} email
-address. So your very valuable contribution and copyright assignment will
-not be forgotten and is highly appreciated by a very large community. If
-you are reluctant to sign an assignment, a disclaimer is also acceptable.
+Please get in touch with the Gnuastro maintainer (currently Mohammad Akhlaghi, 
mohammad -at- akhlaghi -dot- org) to follow the procedures.
+It is possible to do this for each change (good for for a single 
contribution), and also more generally for all the changes/additions you do in 
the future within Gnuastro.
+So if you have already assigned the copyright of your work on another GNU 
software to the FSF, it should be done again for Gnuastro.
+The FSF has staff working on these legal issues and the maintainer will get 
you in touch with them to do the paperwork.
+The maintainer will just be informed in the end so your contributions can be 
merged within the Gnuastro source code.
+
+Gnuastro will gratefully acknowledge (see @ref{Acknowledgments}) all the 
people who have assigned their copyright to the FSF and have thus helped to 
guarantee the freedom and reliability of Gnuastro.
+The Free Software Foundation will also acknowledge your copyright 
contributions in the Free Software Supporter: 
@url{https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter} which will circulate to a 
very large community (225,910 people in July 2021).
+See the archives for some examples and subscribe to receive interesting 
updates.
+The very active code contributors (or developers) will also be recognized as 
project members on the Gnuastro project web page (see @ref{Gnuastro project 
webpage}) and can be given a @code{gnu.org} email address.
+So your very valuable contribution and copyright assignment will not be 
forgotten and is highly appreciated by a very large community.
+If you are reluctant to sign an assignment, a disclaimer is also acceptable.
 
 @cartouche
 @noindent
-@strong{Do I need a disclaimer from my university or employer?} It depends
-on the contract with your university or employer. From the FSF's
-@file{/gd/gnuorg/conditions.text}: ``If you are employed to do programming,
-or have made an agreement with your employer that says it owns programs you
-write, we need a signed piece of paper from your employer disclaiming
-rights to'' Gnuastro. The FSF's copyright clerk will kindly help you
-decide, please consult the following email address: ``assign -at- gnu -dot-
-org''.
+@strong{Do I need a disclaimer from my university or employer?} It depends on 
the contract with your university or employer.
+From the FSF's @file{/gd/gnuorg/conditions.text}: ``If you are employed to do 
programming, or have made an agreement with your employer that says it owns 
programs you write, we need a signed piece of paper from your employer 
disclaiming rights to'' Gnuastro.
+The FSF's copyright clerk will kindly help you decide, please consult the 
following email address: ``assign -at- gnu -dot- org''.
 @end cartouche