Hi devs, Blender Foundation has signed up an agreement with The Software Freedom Law Center, so they can officially help or advice us for any future cases when legalities might arise.
This is also related to my investigation of developer agreements. I'm reviewing the Harmony Agreements project and discuss with them what it would possibly benefit Blender. http://harmonyagreements.org/overview.html You probably know I'm a very relaxed and non-paranoid person. I don't think we're being at much risk, nor am I afraid for lawyers ever, nor do I like it much to force our contributors to give up the rather informal freedom here and make them sign complex agreements. On the other hand, it's the Foundation's responsibility to ensure Blender developers can safely and happily work, and to ensure Blender itself and its future is protected in the best way possible. With Blender becoming a more relevant alternative for commercial products, it's only a matter of time for some zealot to try out how to harm our project legally. Here's some tips I've learned sofar for developers to avoid; - Be careful with referring to commercial products. All of these typically have EULAs that forbid to investigate the products for any other reason than to use them. - If you refer to products or technology, ensure it's public and free info. Include the links to such docs or web pages. - Always document your progress and designs and publish it in the earliest possible stage. - Don't mention (nor do) investigation of public patent databases ever, unless you already evidently knew it had to be done. - If you're in doubt whether your work might get risky industry attention, arrange with me to have it published and committed under "BF copyright". Even though that won't waive your liability from flagrant violations, it'll at least makes the BF position more clear in a future. - If you ever get contacted by a company or laywers firm about patents or IP issues, contact me individually immediate, and I'll hook you up with softwarefreedom.org. :) Thanks! -Ton- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation [email protected] www.blender.org Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
