On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 7:26 AM, Francesco Chicchiriccò <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > in Syncope we have been discussing [1] about some aspects related to our > NOTICE file and wed like to ask your opinion about this. > > A part of my current work for Syncope is actually paid by one of my > customers that is actually financed in turn by SURFnet. > They explicitly required that such code has to be part of the official > Syncope repository and releases and are also asking to include in the > NOTICE file the following extract:
A better way to say this would be "required to contribute the code to Syncope". Requiring it to actually be a part of the official repository is outside of your individual control (ie: the community could disagree, someone else could delete it later etc). Requiring it be in the codebase tries to turn Apache into a consultancy company. > Portions of this software are developed by the support of the SURF, the > higher education and research partnership organization for Information and > Communications Technology (ICT) in The Netherlands. For more information > about SURF, please visit www.surf.nl. You could view this as an Apache licensed work with a NOTICE file containing the above that is being included in Syncope, rather than coming in over the CLA. Alternatively, you have to identify any other rights holders when contributing code under the ICLA (clause 7). It sounds as though SURF are the rights holder for the work, so identifying their copyright in the NOTICE is fair if desired. > They have also provided a previous reference [2] in Apache Rave, for > which they have signed a corporate CLA [3] and software grant [4]. > > Do you see any issue with this? Is this fine, provided that they sign > another grant for Syncope? The important item is that you've signed an ICLA and that you have the permissions to contribute. Text-wise, I think it's fine for the NOTICE to include something like: "Portions of this software are developed by the support of the SURF, the higher education and research partnership organization for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in The Netherlands. " We should police that for marketing speak. If it said: "The World's greatest ICT", that would be bad. For example on the above - is SURF the only one of these organizations, or should it be "a higher education ... "? This raises the side question of a NOTICE file that contains incorrect details :) "Portions Copyright Bob the Skull, the lead Apache Rave committer". I think the following shouldn't be included: "For more information about SURF, please visit www.surf.nl. ". That's not valid to giving NOTICE. Community wise this gets interesting for us as it turns NOTICE files into advertising locations and everyone will want to be listed for the smallest of contributions ["Based on a bug report by the Yandell Family, Inc."]. I think the answer is that it's meritocratic, anyone contributing can ask to be listed, however we have to maintain editorial control. SURF can ask that they be called out in the NOTICE, and even propose text but we determine the way in which we do that. Hen
