If we accept patches, then the person who has submitted the patch owns the copyright on that patch, and that means the software is no longer completely in the p

If we accept patches, then the person who has submitted the patch owns the copyright on that patch, and that means the software is no longer completely in the public domain. Unless, of course, the patch submitter has filled out a lot of legal paperwork to dedicate their code to the public domain, which rarely happens.