GNOME Policy on Copyright Assignment

[Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org>]

Hi,

Several months ago, the Release Team contacted the GNOME Foundation to
know what should be done if a module proposed for inclusion in GNOME
requires a copyright assignment. There was no policy for this at that
time, so the Board discussed the topic with the Advisory Board and asked
Bradley Kuhn and Michael Meeks to draft a policy.

After some iterations and feedback from various people, the policy was
approved by the board. You can find the whole policy at:

  http://live.gnome.org/CopyrightAssignment

The very short summary is that the inclusion of a new module in GNOME
that requires copyright assignment has to be explicitly approved on a
case-by-case basis by both the Release Team and the GNOME Foundation
Board. The decision will be made based on criteria explained in the
policy as well as in this additional document:

  http://live.gnome.org/CopyrightAssignment/Guidelines

Note that this does not cover external dependencies.

This clarifies a situation where the Release Team was faced with a
decision it was uncomfortable to take alone, since it implied
non-technical aspects. We feel that this policy and the criteria that are
considered for decisions by the Release Team and the Board reflect the
position of the community.

Many thanks to Bradley and Michael who worked hard to produce those two
documents, and to adjust them based on feedback that was received!

Thanks,

Vincent

-- 
Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés.