Hi, Not sure who here read the Harmony website. Here's an interesting critic of it: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/07/07/harmony-harmful.html
In short - my impression too - the agreement has a very high and complex rate of statements to solely protect and serve the organization. It's quite disputable what a developer benefits from it... The much more friendly readable "Sign off" from Linux kernel is something too: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.commits.head/33254 Not that I like to see this overhead for each of our commits; will study further :) -Ton- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation t...@blender.org www.blender.org Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands On 24 Jul, 2011, at 14:04, Ton Roosendaal wrote: > Hi devs, > > Blender Foundation has signed up an agreement with The Software > Freedom Law Center, so they can officially help or advice us for any > future cases when legalities might arise. > > This is also related to my investigation of developer agreements. I'm > reviewing the Harmony Agreements project and discuss with them what it > would possibly benefit Blender. > http://harmonyagreements.org/overview.html > > You probably know I'm a very relaxed and non-paranoid person. I don't > think we're being at much risk, nor am I afraid for lawyers ever, nor > do I like it much to force our contributors to give up the rather > informal freedom here and make them sign complex agreements. > > On the other hand, it's the Foundation's responsibility to ensure > Blender developers can safely and happily work, and to ensure Blender > itself and its future is protected in the best way possible. With > Blender becoming a more relevant alternative for commercial products, > it's only a matter of time for some zealot to try out how to harm our > project legally. > > Here's some tips I've learned sofar for developers to avoid; > > - Be careful with referring to commercial products. All of these > typically have EULAs that forbid to investigate the products for any > other reason than to use them. > > - If you refer to products or technology, ensure it's public and free > info. Include the links to such docs or web pages. > > - Always document your progress and designs and publish it in the > earliest possible stage. > > - Don't mention (nor do) investigation of public patent databases > ever, unless you already evidently knew it had to be done. > > - If you're in doubt whether your work might get risky industry > attention, arrange with me to have it published and committed under > "BF copyright". Even though that won't waive your liability from > flagrant violations, it'll at least makes the BF position more clear > in a future. > > - If you ever get contacted by a company or laywers firm about patents > or IP issues, contact me individually immediate, and I'll hook you up > with softwarefreedom.org. :) > > Thanks! > > -Ton- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation t...@blender.org > www.blender.org > Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The > Netherlands > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-committers mailing list > Bf-committers@blender.org > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers