> On Jun 1, 2021, at 10:31 AM, David Edelsohn via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote:
>
> The copyright author will be listed as "Free Software Foundation,
> Inc." and/or "The GNU Toolchain Authors", as appropriate.
What does that mean? FSF is a well defined organization. "The GNU Toolchain
Authors" sounds like one, but is it? Or is it just a label for "the set of
contributors who have contributed without assigning to FSF"? In other words,
who is the owner of such a work, the GTA, or the submitter? I'm guessing the
latter.
That seems to create a possible future complication. Prior to this change, the
FSF (as owner of the copyright) could make changes such as replacing the GPL 2
license by GPL 3. With the policy change, that would no longer be possible,
unless you get the approval of all the copyright holders. This may not be
considered a problem, but it does seem like a change.
I looked at gcc.gnu.org to find the updated policy. I don't think it's there;
the "contribute" page wording still feels like the old policy. Given the
change, it would seem rather important to have the implications spelled out in
full, and the new rules clearly expressed.
paul
