For diff files, it depends if there is some context and if you change some lines or only add/remove some.
It's perfectly possible (even if not much readable afterwards) to not have any context lines, to inject #if 0/#endif pairs around lines to remove, and to simply add lines to be added. I think it could be argued that the resulting diff isn't based on the original file (only line numbers are referenced), as it can be applied without error to any file having at least the same number of lines. Of course, the results will probably be useless unless you apply it to the original file.
If you need to modify part of a line, then it's much more tricky, and I don't think it's a good idea to publish your resulting diff.
I was thinking about trying to setup a bounty website so that people can pay to have, or to vote for bugs in OSS being fixed and so see a return on an investment whilst helping OSS[everybody] out.
The problem is patches... The solution I came up with is this
publish the part of the patch that has modified or unmodified existing code in it under the correct license for the existing (say GPL)
Then publish the rest under whatever license you like.
For GPL &co, as soon as the two patches are merged by someone else they have to become GPL. this is good enough for bounty work, since you can charge to make the non-GPL bit GPL.
If you are in the USA that was not legal advice, if your not in the US I'll argue the point with the FSA with you.
As for MSDN I hand retype everything that is a fact and even put in my own artistic spelling mistakes just to be on the safe side.
Of course, IANAL and YMMV.
Vincent
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