This page describes the process of becoming a lovely contributor

INSTRUCTIONS

for the Loveley Systems GmbH contributor assignment agreement

Lovely Systems is distributing software, which includes contributions of selected programmers. The information below clarifies copyright issues.

When you write or make changes to software programs, you often automatically obtain a copyright in what you wrote. When you write or make changes to Lovely Systems software programs, you need to assign the copyright to Lovely Systems.

The way to assign to the Lovely Systems GmbH the copyright in software that you wrote or changes that you made to Lovely Systems GmbH software is to send us a signed Contributor Assignment Agreement. This makes the Lovely Systems GmbH the legal copyright holder so that we can register the copyright in the software that you wrote or changes that you made. It is assumed that you wrote the software or changes yourself; if other people wrote or changed parts, we will likely need Contributor Assignment Agreements from them as well.

Obviously, since you assigned to the Lovely Systems GmbH the copyright in the code you wrote, you cannot assign the copyright to someone else, but you can grant licenses to the code you wrote under any terms you wish, keeping in mind that the Lovely Systems GmbH will also be granting licenses as set forth in the Assignment Agreement. If, for some reason, another entity would like to discuss the possibility of becoming a co-owner of the copyright in the code you wrote, simply have them contact us.

If you are employed to do programming (even at a university), or have made an agreement with your employer, school or anyone else saying it owns software you write, then you and we need a signed writing from them disclaiming any rights they may have to the software. The disclaimer should be signed by a vice president, general manager, or anyone else who is authorized to assign software owned by them.

Here is a sample wording:

ACME Corporation hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the code written by Jane Doe for the program “[insert name of program]” (“Program”), including original Program code and documentation and support files, changes and enhancements to the Program and files, and any future modifications of the Program and files. We do not consider the code as work made for hire for us. ACME Corporation affirms that it has no other intellectual property interest that would undermine this release, or the use of the Program, and will do nothing to undermine it in the future.
, 30 March 20__
John Smith, Vice President, ACME Corp.

(If they say they have an intellectual property interest that could conflict with the use of the program, then please put us in touch with a suitable representative, so that we can discuss with them what to do about it.)

IMPORTANT: When you talk to your employer, don’t fail to show them the sample disclaimer above, or a disclaimer with the details filled in for your specific case. Employers are usually willing to sign a disclaimer without any fuss. Less specific requests may cause long and unnecessary delay.
When you assign to the Lovely Systems GmbH the copyright in the code you wrote, we automatically grant back to you a royalty-free non-exclusive license to use or license the code you assigned to us any way you see fit.

Below is the Assignment Agreement that we use. You need to print it out, read it, fill in the appropriate information, sign it, and send the physical copy with original signature (faxing or emailing a scanned version is not sufficient) on it to:

Lovely Systems Information Technology GmbH
Schmelzhütterstraße 26a
6850 Dornbirn
Austria

Please try to print the whole first page of the contributor agreement 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. Don’t forget to put down the date when you sign! Spell out the month name–don’t use a number for the month. Dates using a number for the month are ambiguous;

2/8/95 means one thing in the US and another in Europe. If applicable, also send us a physical copy of the employer’s disclaimer with an original signature on it as well.

Please send us an email letting us know what you have done and what we should expect to receive from you. If you have any questions, or would like something to be changed, ask office@lovelysystems.com via email.