On Tue, Mar 04, 2008 at 01:03:32PM -0800, Bruce Perens wrote: > Just please confirm to me that you did not really have any competent > legal advice behind your original statement. That particular meme about > copyright changes requiring contact with every single developer is an > oft-repeated and IMO harmful and misinformed one in Open Source circles.
As both Josh and I have pointed out, my original mail referred to a "layman's understanding of copyright law" and never claimed to have legal advice underlying it. My understanding is different from yours in this regard, and given that neither of us is a lawyer, I would certainly consult legal advice if I were going to take (or refrain from taking) any action that turns on this issue. As of now, Debian is not asking SPI to adopt your theory, and my inaction is based on lack of a request from Debian rather than based on my understanding of the law. If you have no reason to push this issue with the DDs, then in my role as an SPI director I will consider it resolved for now until SPI hears that Debian is interested in pursuing it. > My opinion is that the holding company concept never worked for Debian. > After 10 years there are still problems with DD participation in SPI and > even SPI folks still feel uneasy regarding SPI owning Debian stuff. I realize you have felt this way for a long time. However, given that there is nothing compelling Debian to hold assets with SPI yet it continues to do so, presumably Debian is at least comfortable enough with the relationship that it chooses to continue it. At the direction of Debian, SPI would certainly transfer those of Debian's assets which it controls to a separate legal entity created with compatible purposes and that has a 501(c)(3) tax exemption. Unless and until SPI receives such a direction from Debian (again either resulting from a GR or from a non-overridden DPL decision), I have to assume that your viewpoint is a minority one that does not represent the overall wishes of Debian. - Jimmy Kaplowitz [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Spi-general mailing list [email protected] http://lists.spi-inc.org/listinfo/spi-general
