Re: [OctDev] optimized lookup

[John W. Eaton]

On 19-Feb-2008, Jaroslav Hajek wrote:

| OK, that's an issue. My employer allows me to contribute to open
| source projects as a part of my work under a research grant. Since I'm
| using Octave for my work, I wanted to give something in return by
| contributing to it. It is, however, desirable that the results are
| "provable" in some way to the grant donator (government) should he ask
| for such proof, and I'm resolving this by assigning the copyright to
| my employer. My understanding is that it does not matter, because the
| GPL ensures all necessary legal aspects to keep the source free. Yes,
| I am explicitly permitted to release under GPL.

OK, if that is the case, I don't see a problem.

The potential trouble is that someone contributes to Octave and
releases the code under the terms of the GPL, but their employer later
comes along and says that they own the code and that the employee
never had the right to release it under the terms of the GPL.  That's
the reason I asked.

Thanks,

jwe