Clarification of GPL

[ti EMAIL]

Hi, I’m looking for clarification of two scenarios under the GPL.
If this is not a good place to ask, please direct me to where I can.

A piece of software I regularly use is released under the GPL.  My
concern is how the original writer and maintainer accepts patches.

Each source file is tagged with a header naming him as copyright
followed by a GPL header.  For anybody to submit a patch to the
original distribution, you agree that he gets copyright of it.  Can
you transfer copyright to somebody after editing source under GPL, or
are these two things unrelated?  He claims this is to avoid stupid
situations later on where the copyright is split out over a million
people, each of which could stop further distribution of his program.

For a code module/library I’ve written and released under the GPL, is
it possible to be incorporated into this previous program giving the
previous stipulation based on only the information I’ve stated here?

Can you add requirements to a license in a source file such that your
name must always be included as writing the file if anybody decides to
use your code?  (Questioning if this can be legally binding.)

Thank you




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