I had brought this up on desktop-devel, but was instructed that this would be a better forum for this discussion. I recently tried to find information on GNOME policies and guidelines for licensing and copyright assignment, and was unable to find it. The FSF has some general guidelines on prudent measures for handling copyright for GPL projects, but GNOME does not seem to follow these guidelines. For example, the FSF recommends for many GNU projects that contributors assign their copyrights to the FSF to make enforcement of the GPL easier. I think that it would be a good idea for a developer HOWTO on properly documenting and licensing contributions to GNOME projects in such as way that the GPL sticks and so that GPL enforcement is made as easy as possible. For example, under what circumstances should a contributor add a copyright string for themselves to the top of a source file? Under what circumstances should a contributor formally assign copyright to the FSF, the GNOME foundation, or other body, if ever? What is the proper procedure for adding new source files to a project in such as way that the new files are covered under the GPL and considered part of the project under the definitions set forth in the GPL? What is the correct way to start a new project (GPL or otherwise) based on the GNOME developer platform so that GPL-related licensing issues do not arise? These are all potentially tricky questions and I think that some documentation would be very helpful for many developers. I am not a lawyer, and not an expert on such matters (though perhaps I know more than most), but I would be willing to help coordinate such an effort. -Rob
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