Getting assignment forms before submission into Emacs

[jwiegley]

• @BernardHurley
• @DamienCassou (Damien Cassou)
• @Fuco1 (Matus Goljer)
• @MaikuMori (Miks Kalnins)
• @PhilHudson (Phil Hudson)
• @Silex (Philippe Vaucher)
• @YoungFrog (Nicolas Richard)
• @aethanyc (Ting-Yu Lin)
• @alezost (Alex Kost)
• @aspiers (Adam Spiers)
• @basil-conto (Basil L. Contovounesios)
• @bdd (Berk D. Demir)
• @canatella (Damien Merenne)
• @carldotac (Carl Lieberman)
• @cmpitg (Ha-Duong Nguyen)
• @dabrahams (Dave Abrahams)
• @dudebout (Nicolas Dudebout)
• @edvorg (Eduard Knyshov)
• @ffevotte (François Févotte)
• @hartzell (George Hartzell)
• @jabranham (Alex Branham)
• @joewreschnig (Joe Wreschnig)
• @justbur (Justin Burkett)
• @kaushalmodi (Kaushal Modi)
• @killdash9 (Russell Black)
• @kovrik
• @marcwebbie (Marc Webbie)
• @matklad (Aleksey Kladov)
• @mcandre (Andrew Pennebaker)
• @milkypostman (Donald Curtis)
• @nickmccurdy (Nick McCurdy)
• @npostavs (Noam Postavsky)
• @peterhoeg (Peter Hoeg)
• @phillord (Phil Lord)
• @phst (Philipp Stephani)
• @purcell (Steve Purcell)
• @raxod502 (Radon Rosborough)
• @rememberYou (Terencio Agozzino)
• @syl20bnr (Sylvain Benner)
• @tarsius (Jonas Bernoulli)
• @thiagowfx (Thiago Perrotta)
• @thomasf (Thomas Frössman)
• @vermiculus (Sean Allred)
• @vyp
• @waymondo (Justin Talbott)

To everyone who has contributed code to use-package: I would like to include use package in the next version of Emacs, but to do so, I need copyright assignment forms to be signed by anyone who has added code to use-package. If you do not wish to sign such a copyright assignment form, let me know so that I can find a way to back out any changes you may have made.

It's quite possible that due to recent code rewrites, your change may not appear anymore. If that is the case, I only ask that you verify this, so I can take you off of the list of people I need assignment forms from.

Thank you!

John

[MaikuMori]

I have only contributed to the README.md so far, but I have no objection to signing the copyright form especially if it works for any kind of contributions to Emacs, not just this package.

[npostavs]

I have already signed papers for Emacs contributions.

[thomasf]

I've been meaning to do this for a while so this is a good push! Last time I got lost trying to figure out exactly how I should start the process (due to lack of time)..
Just to make it clear here, should we as, as future contributors start this process by sending e-mail to assign@gnu.org ?

[ffevotte]

Hi, I've already signed the FSF copyright assignment form. Should I send you something so that you can verify? (I should be able to retrieve the scanned form from my mail archive...)

[waymondo]

I have not signed anything but would be very happy to.

[Silex]

I'm okay too, what do we need to do?

[tarsius]

I have already signed papers for Emacs contributions. And have no objections to use-package becoming part of Emacs and my copyright assignment therefore covering that library too.

[phillord]

@thomasf You need to send some information to assign@gnu.org. I will email you (and anyone else) the form. The FSF then send you the real forms (the process and forms, unfortunately, depend on your country of residence).

@jwiegley The FSF have my forms!

[jwiegley]

@MaikuMori Yes, you can sign a more general form with the FSF that covers anything you might contribute to Emacs. You'll have to get it approved by your place of work, so that the FSF is certain it is valid for you to sign the form. Send any questions you might have to assign@gnu.org.

Sorry if it should have been obvious to me that some of you already have your forms signed, I just sent this to all past contributors in order to be sure to not miss anyone!

[thiagowfx]

Could you please list the steps needed to be done? I am happy to sign the form, but I don't have time to search for stuff and run after it myself, at least not for now, so i detailed and self-contained instructions are provided, you can count on me.

[jwiegley]

@thiagowfx Just send an e-mail to assign@gnu.org. Tell them either that you'd like to sign a copyright assignment for contributions to use-package.el to be included in future versions of Emacs; or say that you'd like to sign a general assignment form for any future contributions to Emacs. They will send you the PDF that you need to sign and return to them.

[thomasf]

@phillord Thanks. I understand why the process is somewhat manual, I don't think the way that copyright assignment like it is described on the FSF site (from a US point of view?) is compatible with Swedish law where you either are required to have an actual contract to establish ownership of code with the exception of public domain which is allowed.

[thiagowfx]

@jwiegley Okay, I just e-mailed them. I will unsubscribe from notifications from this issue now.

[phillord]

@thomasf The process on the FSF is just to make sure that you get the right forms! I am sure that they will have got Swedish law figured out.

[jwiegley]

@thiagowfx Ok, thanks, please let me know when your process is completed. I'm going to be maintaining a checklist, and will reach out again to people if I've not heard back in a few weeks.

[mcandre]

+1 applied for copyright consent form. Thanks for pushing for use-package as an Emacs built-in, it's a great addition!

[vermiculus]

I do hope that unquoting lambda forms is insignificant enough for the FSF to just be 'anonymous' or something like that. I've had great difficulty in getting the forms signed by my employer in the past, though maybe they would react differently to something that I spent time on before this job 😄

I'll ask.

[MaikuMori]

Email sent. I will let you know when the process is done.

On Wed, 11 Nov 2015 at 23:14 Andrew Pennebaker notifications@github.com
wrote:

+1 applied for copyright consent form. Thanks for pushing for use-package
as an Emacs built-in, it's a great addition!

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#282 (comment)
.

[DamienCassou]

Already sent mine years ago.

[syl20bnr]

Email sent. I will let you know when the process is done.

Same here.

[dabrahams]

Long since done.

[vyp]

Sent email.

[bdd]

You can remove me from the list. My pull request was only whitespace fixes.

[peterhoeg]

Email sent.

[matklad]

My contribution is very minor (a quote added, it is not even shown in blame now), do I still need to sign a form? The signing would require more effort then the contribution did :)

[YoungFrog]

I already have an assignment for emacs.

[edvorg]

I've sent an email.

On Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 9:48 AM Nicolas Richard notifications@github.com
wrote:

I already have an assignment for emacs.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#282 (comment)
.

[purcell]

I already have an assignment for emacs.

Me too.

[Silex]

@jwiegley: I only have documentation/typo fixes... can I just "give" those change to you (anonymous is fine)? I don't feel like going throught the whole assignment process just for silly changes like this.

[aspiers]

I also already have FSF copyright assignment for emacs as per http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contribute.html#contributors_with_fsf_papers. Congratulations on the appointment BTW! Looking forward to seeing some great improvements :)

[jwiegley]

@kovrik @andschwa any status you can report?

[andyleejordan]

Last update from the FSF copyright clerk in December was that my paperwork was next to be reviewed, I’ve just sent another email asking for an update. Frankly I really don’t know what happened: I got the original copyright assignment paperwork from the FSF sometime in 2018, got it reviewed and approved by my employer’s legal team (and they didn’t tell me to they’d made any changes, they just said to have my manager sign it), so in 2019 it got signed by my then-manager and I mailed it in. FSF said it wasn’t quite the same language and that it needed to be reviewed by their legal team, which is the queue it’s been sitting in since then. I offered to just get fresh paperwork signed but if I recall correctly they said that was unnecessary and just wanted to have it reviewed. So anyway, I guess eventually it will happen.

[kovrik]

Yeah I am still waiting for the reply from FSF.
Is there an alternative way to avoid the whole hassle?
I don't even remember what changes I've done (probably something really minor), maybe it's not even there anymore.

[andyleejordan]

Unfortunately the “whole hassle” is unavoidable. It’s a particularly paperworked process that the FSF requires (and that many other projects use simpler means for, like automatic CLA-bots, but still wouldn’t have been possible here since the code is getting incorporated from another project).

I think I have four different Emacs projects (including Emacs itself) that I have been unable to continue to contribute to because of this legalese, despite wanting to make more contributions. It’s changed my opinions of copyright assignment, that’s for sure.

There’s a lot of history to this if you’re interested.

[jwiegley]

Thanks to you both for keeping up with this. I know it can be tiresome, but it helps to keep Emacs entirely free from any possible copyright encumbrances.

[MatthewZMD]

I don't know what's taking so long but I suggest following up with the FSF folks on the IRC might help.

[kovrik]

Guys, guys, we are almost there.
I have finally received the assignment form from FSF. Planning to sign and send it to FSF today. Will report back shortly.

[kovrik]

OK, signed and sent the assignment form back to FSF.

[jwiegley]

@andschwa Unless I'm misreading, your commits have all been additions of documentation, which shouldn't need you to submit forms to the FSF.

[andyleejordan]

For use-package, yes, I agree with that assessment (sorry, I guess that was missed).

[mplscorwin]

I understand you may be able to use assistance getting this "the last mile". I'll certainly follow conversations on devel and via debbugs.gnu.org; please don't hesitate to "assign" anything out.

I can have a look at the "moving files about" bit, and see if I'm up to the task of generating a patch set from there. I won't at all be upset if others also attempt this and are more successful or simply quicker about it. I'll reply back here to share any success I may have if that sounds OK.

[progfolio]

Will 2023 be "The Year of Desktop use-package"?

[skangas]

@jwiegley Could this issue be closed?

[jwiegley]

I think the purpose of this issue has been concluded.

[skangas]

I briefly reopened this as we were still lacking assignments for three PRs. The relevant changes have been reverted for now, while we're waiting for a copyright assignment, so this is no longer blocking the merge to Emacs.

I'm therefore closing this issue again now.