Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules]
On Mon, 01 May 2006, Chuck Hagenbuch wrote: I suppose another question is, what level of contribution gives someone enough copyright say to need to approve a license change? Fixing a typo? A few lines of code? A whole new driver seems like enough to me; what about tweaking CSS? I don't know if there are rules for this. There aren't any rules for that, as it's very difficult to determine at what point you generate a work of authorship. A general rule of thumb is that any non-trivial contribution has a say in the way in which the work is licensed. This is one of the reasons why doing due dilligence in copyright assignment or licensing when you accept patches for contributors is such an important part in making a robust free software project. [Unfortunatly, it's one of the parts that almost every project sucks horribly at because it's such a thankless uninteresting task.] Don Armstrong -- The trouble with you, Ibid he said, is that you think you're the biggest bloody authority on everything -- Terry Pratchet _Pyramids_ p146 http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules]
Chuck, I forward to debian-legal list, best place for license experts. debian-legal people, find first post of this thread here : http://lists.horde.org/archives/sork/Week-of-Mon-20060424/002560.html - Forwarded message from Chuck Hagenbuch [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 21:08:30 -0400 From: Chuck Hagenbuch [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Gregory Colpart [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Eric Rostetter [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules Quoting Gregory Colpart [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Perhaps, I should ask this in all (core|drivers) developers listed in CREDITS file (but copyright in LICENSE file is for The Horde Project and copyright in PHP files are for Eric Rostetter). Well, you guys are the license experts, so you tell us: does the stated copyright in the license and code trump individual contributors if there's no paper (or email) trail of copyright assignment? -chuck -- we are plastered to the windshield of the bus that is time. - Chris - End forwarded message - -- Gregory Colpart [EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG:1024D/C1027A0E Evolix - Informatique et Logiciels Libres http://www.evolix.fr/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules]
[Cc'ed to original recipients since it seemed likely not all follow debian-legal] Gregory Colpart writes: Chuck, I forward to debian-legal list, best place for license experts. debian-legal people, find first post of this thread here : http://lists.horde.org/archives/sork/Week-of-Mon-20060424/002560.html From: Chuck Hagenbuch [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules To: Gregory Colpart [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Eric Rostetter [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 21:08:30 -0400 Quoting Gregory Colpart [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Perhaps, I should ask this in all (core|drivers) developers listed in CREDITS file (but copyright in LICENSE file is for The Horde Project and copyright in PHP files are for Eric Rostetter). Well, you guys are the license experts, so you tell us: does the stated copyright in the license and code trump individual contributors if there's no paper (or email) trail of copyright assignment? This probably varies slightly from country to country, but at least in the USA, copyright is not automatically transferred like this. If the work is done for hire, the employer is the original copyright holder. If a written agreement assigning the specific copyright(s) exists, it is binding. A written but purportedly implied agreement is insufficient, as are verbal or non-specific agreements. In the absence of details, it is hard to say which applies in this case; but unless the employer is asking in the context of an employee's paid work, a copyright assignment is the safe bet. Michael Poole -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules]
Gregory Colpart writes: Chuck, I forward to debian-legal list, best place for license experts. By the way, cc'ing a closed list when emailing an open list is poor form. (Hopefully this will help others avoid the auto-reject message I got.) Michael Poole -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [sork] About license of sork modules]
Quoting Michael Poole [EMAIL PROTECTED]: This probably varies slightly from country to country, but at least in the USA, copyright is not automatically transferred like this. If the work is done for hire, the employer is the original copyright holder. If a written agreement assigning the specific copyright(s) exists, it is binding. A written but purportedly implied agreement is insufficient, as are verbal or non-specific agreements. In the absence of details, it is hard to say which applies in this case; but unless the employer is asking in the context of an employee's paid work, a copyright assignment is the safe bet. There is no written license assignment agreement, signed or otherwise. It seems likely then that we'd need individual agreement from all past contributors to change the license. I'm not opposed to a preferred but mostly equivalent license, but honestly Horde doesn't have the manpower to go around doing this. If the Debian packagers want a different license, I'd be fine with them putting together a list of people who need to sign off on it. Then Horde could take it from there, assuming everyone on the Horde side agrees. I suppose another question is, what level of contribution gives someone enough copyright say to need to approve a license change? Fixing a typo? A few lines of code? A whole new driver seems like enough to me; what about tweaking CSS? I don't know if there are rules for this. Thanks, -chuck -- we are plastered to the windshield of the bus that is time. - Chris
