David, Can you point me to where the copyright policy addresses the contributors as being the copyright holders for the OFBiz code instead of ASF? <inquiring tone, not skepticism> I'm not seeing them in NOTICE or LICENSE, but they are rather long :-)
TIA, Chris --- "David E. Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Chris, > > Have you read the ASF licensing and copyright policy > documents? They > address this, and in general this sort of thing in > pretty good detail. > > Don't worry, you're not the first to notice this. > > As for copyright statements in other projects: there > are certain > cases where the files are not 100% licensed through > the ASF, but are > rather a combination of third party code and code > developer for/ > through the ASF. Also not that while it is the > responsibility of > committers to monitor this sort of thing in patches > and their own > work, we do sometimes make mistakes. In general for > the OFBiz code it > has been thoroughly reviewed and such things well > vetted through the > incubation process. > > -David > > > On Jan 14, 2007, at 8:45 PM, Chris Howe wrote: > > > While searching for more answers on how to make > the > > ofbiz-sandbox ASF friendly (both legally and ASF > > administrative safe guard wise), I came across a > > distinction between contributions to the Free > Software > > Foundation (FSF) and contributions to the ASF that > I > > think may have been inadequately addressed in > OFBiz. > > IANAL. > > > > Contributions to FSF require a copyright > assignment, > > while contributions to ASF generally, simply grant > > license of use, modification, etc. This > distinction > > allows FSF software to carry the copyright notice > > "Copyright YYYY The Free Software Foundation" by > > itself. > > > > I looked at a couple of the other ASF TLPs and > noticed > > they were either missing a copyright notice in > > individual files or in the case of Geronimo, had > the > > following: > > > > * Copyright 2004, 2005 The Apache Software > Foundation > > or its licensors, as applicable. > > > > I only looked at a couple files, so this is no > where > > near a comprehensive search. As it is now, nearly > > every file in OFBiz says: > > > > Copyright 2001-2006 The Apache Software > Foundation > > > > Which perhaps in and of itself is a copyright > > violation. One for the beginning year (it may be > > materially false as I wouldn't think a copyright > can > > be assigned retroactively) and two for the > exclusion > > of those who may actually have the copyright (the > > author, etc). To my knowledge, there was no > request > > to the community for copyright assignment. > > > > I hope no one construes this as causing a fuss or > as a > > distraction. One of the reasons for the move to > the > > ASF for the project, as I understood it, was a > > proactive step to avoid legal hassles. I just > want us > > to take advantage of that benefit and protect all > of > > our hard work. > > > > TIA for your feedback, > > Chris > >
