Pedro and Jürgen, It is important to be concerned about false contrasts and comparisons.
There is a risk, when we are essentially preaching to the choir, that we sink into some sort of fundamentalist hyperbole as well. It is satisfying, it is credible to us, and it can be a mistake. Facts are more nuanced than portrayed. It is also unnecessary for the voice of the project to be taken there. There are many places where such matters can be discussed without embroiling the project. A company is certainly not going to learn about the risks of running pirated software here first. I don't want to get into fine points of how the BSA operates. Anyone can research the rewards for whistle-blowers on settlement without lawsuits at <https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/usa/rewardsconditions.aspx>. My main point is that an AOO stance is insignificant and not informative to someone for whom license management is a serious concern. Also, the BSA does not pursue individuals using software separate from and outside of their employment. It is more important, to me, that there be clarity about what the AOO licensing conditions are and how easy they are to satisfy at essentially no cost. Comparative cost-benefit is much larger than that single factor. AOO site and resources could be more helpful in determining how to migrate successfully, though. That's something where we have an opportunity to act as a contribution to the public interest. The business about copy-left versus permissive licenses is evidently what attracted the attention of the legal-discuss list here at the ASF. I had not known what the actual discussion was at <http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/www-legal-discuss/201501.mbox/browser>. The conclusion later in that thread led to the footnote on the current version of the page at <http://www.openoffice.org/why/why_compliance.html>. (Another list I need to re-subscribe to.) A still unanswered question from the list is about whose voice this statement is made in. The footnote says it is not the voice of the ASF. It is a matter of firm policy that the ASF does not have anything to say about other (open-source) licenses except with regard to how they are honored, where accepted, in ASF Apache Projects. The only ASF compliance concern is with the Apache License version 2.0 and the ASF conditions on how the releases and distributions produced by Apache projects honor all governing licenses. That is more appropriately presented in material addressed to ASF Project developers and potential contributors. The only advice to adapters of software from ASF Projects is that it is important to observe the licenses that apply. And that interested parties should look elsewhere for legal advice and assurances. - Dennis PS: Other circumstances had me learn, recently, that the reason the Chair of the PMC is an Officer of the Foundation is for important legal purposes with regard to the nature of the Foundation and the umbrella it creates for projects under its auspices. Some of the legal considerations and their honoring are viewed as extending to the PMC as well and the Chair is accountable to the Foundation for that. The PMC, in addition to its attention on the direction of the project is also governed by some legal requirements. I know that's pretty abstract, it is for me too. I expect that Chairs get on-the-job training in such matters. I surmise that the charge to operate in the public interest and within the parameters the Foundation has defined for fulfilling on that is paramount. -----Original Message----- From: Pedro Giffuni [mailto:p...@apache.org] Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 09:03 To: OOo Apache Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] Inappropriate "Compliance Costs" [ ... ] I actually don't care about the discussion: I think both permissive and copyleft licenses have their advantages and disadvantages for certain groups. IANAL and I am in the group that doesn't read licenses anyways :). I honestly don't think having a "compliance costs" page will make a difference but if it saves some (few) people from learning such things through a legal process, I guess that can't do any harm. Regards, Pedro. [1] http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/06/01/open-office.html [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ItFjEG3LaA --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
