GCC RISC-V Support Allegedly Held Up Due To University Lawyers

[paulpach]

Did you miss the part about LLVM having the exact same problem?

I don't understand this. The LLVM project does not require copyright assignment as far as I know.

[GizmoChicken]

Why would the university own the copyright to his work?

Here are a few snippets from Berkeley's IPIRA FAQs page:

Who owns software that I have developed while working at the University?

Under the UC Copyright policy, with some exceptions called out in the policy, the University owns software that is produced by its employees in the course and scope of their employment, and software that is produced with the use of University facilities or funds, and software that is produced by or through the University in the performance of a written agreement between the University and a sponsor. Software that embodies a patentable invention is also subject to the UC Patent Policy. For software governed by both policies, the UC Patent Policy takes precedence.

Do I need to disclose the software I have developed to the OTL? If so, why?

Software should be disclosed to OTL before it is distributed outside the University, so that the University can determine under which conditions the software may be legally distributed. Also, disclosure may be required by the contract under which the software was developed, or may be required by a co-owner of the software. Software that embodies a patentable invention may have additional disclosure requirements under federal statute or under the development contract that funded the creation of the software.

Which types of licensing models I can use to distribute the software I have developed at Berkeley?

There are many different types of licenses that can be used to release software, depending on the form in which the code is being released (source or object), what rights the licensee will have in the software, and whether the software is protected by patent as well as copyright. Options include licenses that allow commercial use, licenses that allow only non-commercial or academic use, open source licenses, and many others. The OTL can work with the authors/inventors to determine the licensing program that best meets your needs.

See http://ipira.berkeley.edu/FAQs

[kiaas]

to anyone still following this, it looks like they got the go-ahead and it was added in the middle of november. https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2016-11/msg00057.html