eCos Copyright Assignment Form

This preamble describes how to use the standard eCos copyright assignment form. The rationale behind this assignment is to avoid any possible confusion over the legal ownership of eCos, and to indemnify all eCos users against copyright or patent claims on contributed code used within eCos. The copyright holders (individual maintainers, eCosCentric and Red Hat) would be especially vulnerable, but all users and their eCos based applications could be affected.

The eCos maintainers have been in discussions with the Free Software Foundation to arrange for eCos to become an FSF project. However these discussions have been taking longer than anticipated, and so purely as a temporary arrangement, eCosCentric has offered to accept eCos copyright assignments, subject to an explicit public guarantee that ensures that this arrangement is only temporary until the discussions with the FSF are concluded. More details on this, including a Q&A are available.

The copyright assignment agreement gives eCosCentric ownership of your changes but promises that you will retain the right to use your contributed changes as you see fit. Once this form has been signed, if you wish you may also contribute future changes without requiring a separate assignment form.

The contribution will remain freely available to all.

Because employers and colleges often can claim ownership over things that employees or students write, you may also have to get your employer/college to sign a disclaimer that says that they have no claim to the changes you are contributing.

Please read everything, and if you have any questions, email the eCos maintainers at <ecos-maintainers@ecos.sourceware.org> for help.

Thanks for your contribution to eCos!

The way to assign copyright to eCosCentric is to sign an assignment contract. This is what makes eCosCentric the legal copyright holder so that eCosCentric can register the copyright on the new version.

If you are employed as a programmer (even at a university), or have made an agreement with your employer or school that gives them ownership of the software you write, then eCosCentric needs a signed letter from your employer disclaiming rights to the contributed software.

The disclaimer should be printed on the company's headed paper, and signed by an officer of the company, or someone authorized to license the company's intellectual property. Here is an example of wording that can be used for this purpose:

  <INSERT COMPANY NAME> hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the
  changes and enhancements made by <INSERT YOUR NAME> to eCos, including any
  future revisions of these changes and enhancements.

  <INSERT COMPANY NAME> affirms that it has no other intellectual property
  interest that would undermine this release, or the use of eCos, and will
  do nothing to undermine it in the future.

  <INSERT SIGNATURE OF OFFICER OF COMPANY>, <INSERT DATE>

  <INSERT PRINTED NAME OF OFFICER OF COMPANY>
  <INSERT TITLE OF OFFICER>

Below is the usual assignment contract. You need to edit and replace <INSERT NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR> with your full name. Please print a copy, sign, date, and mail it to:

  eCos assignments
  eCosCentric Limited
  7 Barnwell House
  Barnwell Business Park
  Barnwell Drive
  CAMBRIDGE
  CB5 8UU
  United Kingdom

Don't forget to include the original signed copy of the employer's disclaimer.

Please try to print the whole first page of the form on a single piece of paper. If it doesn't fit on one printed page, put it on two sides of a single piece of paper, and attach the second page of the form. Please write the date using letters rather than numbers to avoid any confusion due to international day/month ordering conventions.

----------------------------------- Cut Here ----------------------------------

                                eCos ASSIGNMENT

   For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which I acknowledge,
I, <INSERT NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR>, hereby transfer to eCosCentric
Limited my entire right, title, and interest (including all rights
under copyright) in my changes and enhancements to the eCos Operating
System and associated software (herein called the "Software"), subject
to the conditions below. These changes and enhancements are herein
called the "Work". The Work also includes any future changes and
enhancements to the Software hereafter made by me which I also hereby
assign.

   Upon thirty days prior written notice, eCosCentric Limited agrees to
grant me non-exclusive rights to use the Work (i.e. just my changes
and enhancements, not eCos as a whole) as I see fit; (and
eCosCentric's rights shall otherwise continue unchanged).

   I hereby agree that if I have or acquire hereafter any patent or
interface copyright or other intellectual property interest dominating
the software enhanced by the Work (or use of that software), such
dominating interest will not be used to undermine the effect of this
assignment, i.e. eCosCentric, Red Hat and the general public will be
licensed to use, in that program and its derivative works, without
royalty or limitation, the subject matter of the dominating
interest. This license provision will be binding on my heirs,
assignees, or other successors to the dominating interest, as well as
on me.

   I hereby represent and warrant that I am the sole copyright holder for
the Work and that I have the right and power to enter into this
contract. I hereby indemnify and hold harmless eCosCentric, its
officers, employees, and agents against any and all claims, actions or
damages (including attorney's reasonable fees) asserted by or paid to
any party on account of a breach or alleged breach of the foregoing
warranty. I make no other express or implied warranty (including
without limitation, in this disclaimer of warranty, any warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE).

Agreed:
[signature]


[Print Name]


Date:
[Please write using letters]


For eCosCentric:



Date:

--------------------- Cut Here and print on separate page ---------------------

[Please print your name here]


[For the copyright registration, what country are you a citizen of?]


[What year were you born?]


[Please write your email address here]


[Please write your address here, so we can mail a signed copy of the agreement
back to you]




[Please write a brief description of the contribution]







[Which files have you changed so far, and which new files have you written so
far?]