Hi all Robin said on #opensl she thinks I should become a committer. However I don't feel able to sign the Contribution Agreement, as some questions I have about it still aren't answered. I have sent them to contributi...@lindenlab.com back in October, and still haven't received a reply. I talked to Merov back then and he asked legal several times about it, but apparently they were "busy".
Here's my original mail to contributi...@lindenlab.com: > Dear Sir or Madam > > at > http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SNOW-278?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=140775#action_140775 > I was asked to file a contribution agreement. The agreement itself > says, in part: >> If you have questions about these terms, please contact us at >> contributi...@lindenlab.com. > > As I actually do have some questions, that's what I'm doing herewith. > I'll quote the relevant parts of the agreement. Any emphasis was added > by me. > >> 3. You hereby grant to Linden Lab, and to any party who >> receives Your Contribution, a perpetual, >> irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, no-charge, royalty-free, >> license under any patents owned by or licensable by >> You at any time without payment to third parties, to make, have made, >> use, sell, offer to sell, import and otherwise >> transfer Your Contribution *in whole or in part, alone or in >> combination with or included in any product, work or >> materials* arising out of the SL Viewer Project, and to sublicense >> the foregoing rights to third parties through >> multiple tiers of sublicensees or other licensing mechanisms at >> Linden Lab's option. > I understand that this demands, that I grant licences to my present > and future patents on any technology that my contributions introduce. > I.e. when the Second Life Viewer (hereafter "the Viewer") prior to my > contribution didn't have the patented technology, but the Viewer (as > it was at the time the respective contribution was made) combined with > my contribution has it, then I must grant the licences. > > What's unclear to me is if I have to also grant patent licences in the > following cases: > > * The Viewer (at the time of contribution) combined with my > contribution isn't affected by my patents, then someone else > (Linden Lab or a third party) adds (on top of my contribution) > something that is affected by my patents. > * The Viewer combined with my contribution isn't affected by my > patents, but someone else takes my contribution and combines it > with another (e.g. their own) work such that this combination is > affected by my patents. (Obviously, this can only be the case > for contributions that implement different technologies when > combined with different works, which -- while possible in theory > -- might be rather hypothetical in practice. Though one never > knows, so I want to make sure.) > * The Viewer combined with my contribution isn't affected by my > patents, but someone takes my contribution and combines it with > another (e.g. their own) work which was affected by my patents > already without my contribution. > > >> 5. You represent and warrant that You are legally entitled to >> grant the above assignment and licenses. [...] You represent and >> warrant *that the Contribution is Your original work of authorship*, >> and to the best >> of Your knowledge, does not violate any other party's copyrights, >> trademarks, patents or other intellectual property >> rights, and that no other person claims, or has the right to claim, >> any right in any invention or patent related to the >> Contribution. > What about contributions based on other people's contributions to the > Second Life Viewer project, when those contributions haven't (yet) > been accepted and integrated and so aren't (yet) available under GPL > (except the original contributor said so)? (E.g. my > http://jira.secondlife.com/secure/attachment/28350/VWR-5370_rediffed_for_SNOW.patch > is heavily based on Latif Khalifa's > http://jira.secondlife.com/secure/attachment/20869/v2_llfloaterchatterbox.h.patch > which is still in QA) > > I'm looking forward to your answers to these concerns, so I can > hopefully sign and submit the agreement. > > <my real life name> (inworld: Boroondas Gupte) later I followed up with this: > Dear Sir or Madam > > As I haven't heard back from you for two weeks about my questions (cited > below), I'd like to make clear that I'm not seeking legal advice, which > I know you can only give to employees. I'd just like to know what you > meant (applied to the cases I listed in my questions) when you wrote the > agreement. > > If you feel you cannot answer (some of) the questions, please tell me > about that. If it was because of unclearly formulated questions or > cases, I might be able to clarify. If the answers just aren't known, > that'd be useful to know, too. > > Yours faithfully, > <my real life name> (inworld: Boroondas Gupte) > > <full quote of the mail above> > I'm not really looking for IANAL answers from this list, but I thought it might be good to make my questions public, as others might have the same or similar ones. I'd still appreciate any authoritative answers. cheers Boroondas
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