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Are there any software licenses that automate the reassignment of ownership?

For instance, in a usual circumstance, you have a license, and then you make all contributors sign off that by contributing they reassign ownership to the project owner.

In the sort of license I'm looking for, by just editing and redistributing the result (whether in source or binary form), the person who had made changes would not only have to redistribute the code but would also have automatically reassigned their ownership to me.

Alternatively, if that's not possible, can I add a binding clause to an existing license that makes it so?

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IANAL, but that sounds like the whole premise the GPL is based on, by distributing a derivative work you must agree to offer it under the terms of the GPL or you forfeit your own license to use the original. So why not have the Gimmie Public License that says by redistributing a derivative work you assign ownership rights to Joe Bob Briggs or whoever? It would seem to be the same concept to me: by doing X you agree to do Y. If you do not do Y you lose your license to do X.

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  • Not all GPL products require that submissions to the code be reassigned back to the owner. And copyright ownership can always be assigned to someone else.
    – user40980
    Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 20:01
  • But what I mean is automatically reassigning ownership (ie: the person doesn't get to choose to keep ownership).
    – haneefmubarak
    Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 20:02
  • @haneefmubarak Yes, I understand your meaning. The GPL requires redistribution to be licensed under the GPL. So why not have the Gimmie Public License that says by redistributing a derivative work you assign ownership rights to Joe Bob Briggs or whoever? It would seem to be the same concept to me: by doing X you agree to do Y. If you do not do Y you lose your license to do X.
    – stonemetal
    Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 20:16
  • That's awesome @stonemetal ! Please put it in your answer and I'll mark it as correct.
    – haneefmubarak
    Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 20:18
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    Ahh... found a bit that might be useful: Contributor License Agreement
    – user40980
    Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 20:42

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