Re: Copyright assignment

[Rob Adams <readams readams net>]

Note that this issue has previously (before the evolution proposal) been
discussed on foundation-list, in the context of putting together a
policy on copyright.  This is the part of the copyright policy draft
that was put together at the time but never officially "blessed"
relating to copyright assignment:
http://readams.net/copyright/gnome-copyright/x68.html

On Tue, 2004-08-03 at 00:29 +0100, Sander Vesik wrote:
>  --- Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org> wrote: 
> > <quote who="Nat Friedman">
> > 
> > > GNOME requires certain parts of the Mozilla project; Mozilla has required
> > > copyright assignment.
> > > 
> > > So, there's no precedent in GNOME for denying inclusion to projects which
> > > are owned by non-GNOME parties or which ask that contributors assign
> > > copyright to a third non-GNOME party.  In fact, precedent goes the other
> > > way on this issue.
> > 
> > Note that there is a big difference between "required by dependency" and
> > "included in an official GNOME release", so there really is no precedent
> > here.
> > 
> > That said, I can't see any serious problems with the copyright assignment
> > policies for Evolution. The only worrying thing for me is whether we turn
> > this into a general precedent for future modules. Let's forget the specifics
> > of Evolution for a moment, and consider the general case...
> 
> In general, having say sign five legal letters to be able to hack on all parts of
> desktop would be rather limiting. So really, it would be nice if the general policy
> was that such assignment requirements are and contiunue to be very much
> unacceptable. Foundation getting its act together and offering a way to assign
> copyrights to itself would also help to remove problems with the single assignment
> related concern GNOME should be concewrned about, that is licencing integrity. 
> 
> Having a futuire written policy of "there is no copyright assignment needed or such
> will be assigned to the foundation" would be good.
> 
> > 
> > - Jeff
> > 
> > -- 
> > What's all that about?                           http://www.no-name-yet.com/
> >  
> >    "There are men with an appetite for fight and a sense of occasion, and
> >                   then there is Waugh." - SMH, about Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 	
> 	
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