Having trouble getting my school to sign the copyright disclaimer

Having trouble getting my school to sign the copyright disclaimer

[PKU]

Hello,

I’m trying to get my school to sign the copyright disclaimer. Unfortunately the officials are reluctant to do that. Can anyone suggest what to do next?

They claim that university owns copyright to my code if I wrote it for a school-related research project. However, since I’m an undergraduate and thus do not have an advisor, nobody in the campus knows me well enough to prove that it’s not the case. They do promise(verbally) that they won’t interfere if I’m working on my own.

Is there a way to get around that? Any suggestion is appreciated.

Thanks

Yizhe

Re: Having trouble getting my school to sign the copyright disclaimer

[David Edelsohn]

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 11:28 AM PKU via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I’m trying to get my school to sign the copyright disclaimer. Unfortunately the officials are reluctant to do that. Can anyone suggest what to do next?
>
> They claim that university owns copyright to my code if I wrote it for a school-related research project. However, since I’m an undergraduate and thus do not have an advisor, nobody in the campus knows me well enough to prove that it’s not the case. They do promise(verbally) that they won’t interfere if I’m working on my own.
>
> Is there a way to get around that? Any suggestion is appreciated.

Will the university sign a copyright assignment?

Also, you seem to be in China.  It's the people's code.  Ask the
university why they are claiming ownership to something that belongs
to the people.

Thanks, David

Re: Having trouble getting my school to sign the copyright disclaimer

[Richard Kenner]

> They claim that university owns copyright to my code if I wrote it
> for a school-related research project. 

That's potentially correct.  And the purpose of them signing the
disclaimer is to release that interest so that only you need to sign
the assignment.

The other way of doing it would be for them to sign the assignment and
you sign the disclaimer, which would essentially acknowlege that they
own the copright.

But because of of you have a potential interest in the copyright, both
of you need to sign something.

> However, since I'm an undergraduate and thus do not have an advisor,
> nobody in the campus knows me well enough to prove that it's not the case.

The purpose of having both of you sign is so that there's no potential
issue going forward where they might later assert that claim.  That way,
we don't ever need to decide who currently owns the copyright.

Re: Having trouble getting my school to sign the copyright disclaimer

[Jim Wilson]

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 8:27 AM PKU via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote:

> I’m trying to get my school to sign the copyright disclaimer.
> Unfortunately the officials are reluctant to do that. Can anyone suggest
> what to do next?
>

Maybe the PLCT Lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences can help.  They are
doing GCC and LLVM work, and have GCC etc assignments.  Even if they can't
help get an assignment for your current work, if you want to continue doing
GCC work, maybe your next patch can be written for them.  They hold regular
meetings for people doing GCC/LLVM work in China to meet and discuss their
work.  The PLCT work is primarily RISC-V focused though.

https://github.com/lazyparser/weloveinterns
https://github.com/lazyparser/weloveinterns/blob/master/open-internships.md#bj37-gccbinutilsglibclinker-%E5%BC%80%E5%8F%91%E5%AE%9E%E4%B9%A0%E7%94%9F-10%E5%90%8D

You might be able to find more appropriate links.  I don't actually read
Mandarin.  This is just a link I happen to know about which has good info
about the PLCT Lab.

Jim