Hey- Roald de Wit wrote: > Hi, > > If you are going to change the license, why not assign the copyright to > OSGeo like has happened with GeoExt [1]? To me it seems that assigning > it to 'OpenLayers Contributors' can cause issues if you want to change > the license in the future, since you'll need to ask every contributor to > agree on this. I've seen something similar happen with the Mozilla > project [2]. Or does our BSD-like license not suffer from that? >
To be clear, this proposal is not about changing the license granted when MetaCarta distributes OpenLayers (the Clear BSD). This proposal is about two things: 1) the copyright statement in the code, and 2) the authors.txt file that we maintain. The PSC is at a point where we can vote about changing those two things. The PSC *cannot* assign copyright of OpenLayers to another entity (like OSGeo). The PSC also *cannot* distribute OpenLayers with any other license unless it conforms with the Clear BSD. The PSC *can* (at a later time) collect new contributor agreements from all contributors that either 1) assign copyright to a different entity, 2) grant license to a different entity to sublicense OpenLayers as they please. In addition, MetaCarta can be advised by the PSC to distribute OpenLayers with a different license. All of the above can be discussed as separate topics. None really have to do with these two specific proposals. These proposals are about clarifying the current situation: OpenLayers copyright is held collectively by the OpenLayers contributors, not by MetaCarta. Thanks for voting, Tim > Regards, Roald > > [1] http://dev.geoext.org/trunk/geoext/license.txt > [2] http://www-archive.mozilla.org/MPL/relicensing-faq.html > > On 11/11/09 12:58, Tim Schaub wrote: >> Hey- >> >> The Project Steering Committee has been discussing some issues with our >> Contributor License Agreement and code copyright. While there are >> associated issues that might follow from this, we are at the point where >> we'll be voting on proposals to change the copyright statement in the >> code source and the authors file we maintain. >> >> The bottom line is that by signing our CLA, contributors do not assign >> copyright to anyone. Instead, our CLA is about granting a license to >> the project maintainer (MetaCarta). It follows from this that the >> copyright to OpenLayers is collectively held by the individuals and >> corporations that signed contributor agreements. >> >> Thanks to Chris for his careful work deciphering things. Below are >> summaries of his two proposals that we will be voting on (full message >> at the bottom). >> >> 1. Copyright in Source >> ---------------------- >> >> Change all source files and other copyright statements to read >> "Copyright OpenLayers Contributors" instead of "Copyright MetaCarta, >> Inc." In addition, include the URL for the authors file in the >> copyright statement. >> >> >> 2. Corporations in Authors File >> ------------------------------- >> >> Where we have signed CCLA documents from contributors, include the >> Corporation name along with the individual's name in the authors.txt file. >> >> e.g. >> >> James Bond (Her Majesty's Secret Service) >> >> >> Thanks for voting. And again, thanks to Chris for careful deductive work. >> >> I'm +1 on both proposals. >> >> Tim >> >> -------- Original Message -------- >> Subject: [OpenLayers-PSC] Two proposals: Copyright in Source, Corporate >> Copyright in Authors >> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:14:28 -0500 >> From: Christopher Schmidt<crschm...@metacarta.com> >> To: p...@openlayers.org >> >> Hi, >> >> Two proposals. Please vote on each individually. >> >> ---- >> >> Currently, the OpenLayers source files say "Copyright MetaCarta, Inc." with >> a date. This is not correct; since we only have a license to code from >> our contributors, and not the actual copyright of it, we should instead >> change this text from: >> >> /* Copyright (c) 2006-2008 MetaCarta, Inc., published under the Clear BSD >> * license. See http://svn.openlayers.org/trunk/openlayers/license.txt >> for the >> * full text of the license. */ >> >> to >> >> /* Copyright (c) 2006-2009 OpenLayers Contributors, published under the >> Clear >> * BSD license. See >> http://svn.openlayers.org/trunk/openlayers/license.txt for >> * the full text of the license. */ >> >> I am in favor of this change. (+1) >> >> ---- >> >> Currently, our doc/authors.txt list does not identify the corporate entities >> associated with contributors during the time which they made contributions >> to OpenLayers. (Essentially, tying a CCLA to a person.) Since the code >> copyright actually belongs in part to these organizations, I recommend that >> we do our best to fix this situation, by doing our best to associate users >> in the d oc/authors.txt with their corporate parents where appropriate. >> >> For example, this might look like: >> >> Christopher Schmidt (MetaCarta) >> Tim Schaub (OpenGeo) >> Schuyler Erle (MetaCarta, Entropy Free) >> >> I am in favor of this change. (+1) >> >> Best Regards, >> > > > -- > Roald de Wit > Software Engineer > roald.de...@lisasoft.com > > Commercial Support for Open Source GIS Software > http://lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts/ > > > > The contents of this email are confidential and may be subject to legal or > professional privilege and copyright. No representation is made that this > email is free of viruses or other defects. If you have received this > communication in error, you may not copy or distribute any part of it or > otherwise disclose its contents to anyone. Please advise the sender of your > incorrect receipt of this correspondence. > _______________________________________________ > Dev mailing list > Dev@openlayers.org > http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/dev -- Tim Schaub OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org Expert service straight from the developers. _______________________________________________ Dev mailing list Dev@openlayers.org http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
