standards.info: Contributions

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Accepting Contributions

   If someone else sends you a piece of code to add to the program you
are working on, we need legal papers to use it--the same sort of legal
papers we will need to get from you.  _Each_ significant contributor to
a program must sign some sort of legal papers in order for us to have
clear title to the program.  The main author alone is not enough.
   So, before adding in any contributions from other people, please tell
us, so we can arrange to get the papers.  Then wait until we tell you
that we have received the signed papers, before you actually use the
contribution.
   This applies both before you release the program and afterward.  If
you receive diffs to fix a bug, and they make significant changes, we
need legal papers for that change.
   This also applies to comments and documentation files.  For copyright
law, comments and code are just text.  Copyright applies to all kinds of
text, so we need legal papers for all kinds.
   You don't need papers for changes of a few lines here or there, since
they are not significant for copyright purposes.  Also, you don't need
papers if all you get from the suggestion is some ideas, not actual code
which you use.  For example, if you write a different solution to the
problem, you don't need to get papers.
   We know this is frustrating; it's frustrating for us as well.  But if
you don't wait, you are going out on a limb--for example, what if the
contributor's employer won't sign a disclaimer?  You might have to take
that code out again!
   The very worst thing is if you forget to tell us about the other
contributor.  We could be very embarrassed in court some day as a
result.
   We have more detailed advice for maintainers of programs; if you have
reached the stage of actually maintaining a program for GNU (whether
released or not), please ask us for a copy.