On 6/7/2010 2:08 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Erik Trimble<[email protected]> wrote:
Frankly, this is one of the biggest arguments in favor of assigning
copyright to some single entity for all contributions to a project. It's
what allows multi-licensing of an entire codebase. IHNSHO, anyone
running a large OpenSource project should /always/ insist on copyright
assignment. *Who* that copyright is assigned to is another matter
entirely, but it should always happen. Otherwise, you're stuck.
The FSF does it, the Apache Foundation, Mozilla project, and
OpenSolaris, not to mention the OpenJDK project.
I cannot speak for Apache and Mozilla or OpenJDK, but the FSF uses a
contract template that is in conflict with the European Copyright law
and causes the contract to become void.
Jörg
That's interesting. Nice to know. Does the legal concept of
"severability" apply there? (meaning, if one clause is found invalid, it
only invalidates that clause, not the entire contract...)
I know the Contributor Agreement for the OpenJDK project is a hideous
mess of legalese (and, you have to FAX it back to Oracle, signed, since
electronic acknowledgment won't satisfy the lawyers). I'm assuming
that the army of lawyers that got paid to cook up the CA did a
reasonable job checking for compatibility with most region's legal
systems, but I'm sure there's somewhere out there that might have a
problem with some clause.
Civil legal systems are really sucking hard these days.
--
Erik Trimble
Java System Support
Mailstop: usca22-123
Phone: x17195
Santa Clara, CA
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