index 59a6b48fd5eac3cb239893d9725c41ae0bf8b792..28520d1ec0bd7b16af94676a8556e45ebc6eebc0 100644 (file)
--- a/COPYING
+++ b/COPYING
// Copyright 2013 Johns Hopkins University (author: Daniel Povey)
it is because the individual who wrote the code was at that institution as an
- employee, so the copyright is owned by the university (we have checked that the
- contributions were in accordance with the open-source policies of the
+ employee, so the copyright is owned by the university (and we will have checked
+ that the contributions were in accordance with the open-source policies of the
institutions concerned, including getting them vetted individually where
- necessary). In some cases, however, particularly early on, we just wrote the
- name of the university or company concerned, without the actual author's name
- in parentheses. If you see something like
+ necessary). From a legal point of view the copyright ownership is that of the
+ institution concerned, and the (author: xxx) in parentheses is just
+ informational, to identify the actual person who wrote the code, and is not
+ intended to have any legal implications. In some cases, however, particularly
+ early on, we just wrote the name of the university or company concerned,
+ without the actual author's name in parentheses. If you see something like
// Copyright 2009-2012 Arnab Ghoshal Microsoft Corporation
it does not imply that Arnab was working for Microsoft, it is because someone
else contributed to the file while working at Microsoft (this would be Daniel
Povey, in fact, who was working at Microsoft Research at the outset of the
- project). If the actual author's name in parentheses, it is just to clarify
- who wrote the code; it is not supposed to signify ownership of the copyright by
- that individual.
+ project).
The list of authors of each file is in an essentially arbitrary order, but is
often chronological if they contributed in different years.