If it were me I wouldn't think it was getting out of hand. Kernel contributions are the kind of thing that goes on your resumé and can land you a dream job. I would look into courts too.
Then please never submit any patches to LKML because the last thing a maintainer needs is a court case from some entitled newbie that can't be bothered to read the documentation and on top of that is so focused on accreditation that they are willing to go nuclear over a teensy contribution.
FWIW a submission to LKML does not come with any kind of guarantees for either accreditation, use, timeliness or consideration. You are making a small gift to the Linux kernel and all of its users and as such you are being thanked. Hopefully you got more value out of the Linux kernel than you contributed on account of the work that others have put in. The LKML record will suffice to prove your claims of copyright but realize that your work does not stand on its own, it is always going to be within a larger context. Try affixing a (C) Worewood to a patch you intend for inclusion and send it to LKML and see how you'll fare.
The fact that this kind of kernel patch is in any way relevant to one's resume is exactly the thing that is getting out of hand. And the author links to his linkedin profile in the footer, and well, the reference to this patch/contribution/whatever is there, unsurprisingly (and it is the only thing there that they cared about enough to expand upon).
