On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Jason Porter <[email protected]> wrote:
> Of course, I don't deal with legal matters, but would the simplest way be to 
> have a statement from someone representing Red Hat that code from Seam 3 and 
> Solder is permissible to use?

That would be great.  Failing that, taking all contributions on the
merits of their individual authors' copyright ownership is fine too;
I'd just like for us to be more explicit about it.

Thanks for your quick response (and sorry you had to read the original
message on a phone ;)  ),
Matt

>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 14, 2012, at 13:00, Matt Benson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>  Deltaspike is a bit unusual as podlings go:  its code is not a
>> "drop" from one single source (which would typically be accompanied by
>> a software grant), nor is its code grown entirely from nothing.  Part
>> of the incubation process requires the necessary precautions be taken
>> to ensure that the project's IP is not encumbered in any way.  I'm not
>> here to scold folks, but now that I step back and take in the
>> landscape, I am not fully comfortable with our process thus far wrt
>> absorbing code from the various points of ingress we all represent.
>> I'll go on:
>>
>>  Firstly, it's simply a fact that the CODI code is a non-issue:  it's
>> been grown under the auspices of an Apache TLP and there is no reason
>> to doubt that it remains as unencumbered now as ever.  I mention this
>> because it's not at all like I or anyone else is of the "old boys
>> club" mentality or any such nonsense; I'm just categorizing the
>> DeltaSpike codebase as it now stands.  Thus far, I am concerned by the
>> Solder-based code.  For example, the copyright notice at
>> https://github.com/seam/solder/blob/develop/impl/src/main/java/org/jboss/solder/reflection/annotated/AnnotatedTypeBuilder.java
>> (this is pretty clearly the same code as currently lives in the
>> DeltaSpike repo) says "Copyright 2011, Red Hat, Inc. and/or its
>> affiliates, and individual contributors by the @authors tag".  The
>> @authors tag cites Stuart Douglas and Pete Muir, so I read the notice
>> as saying that copyright is shared between these individuals and Red
>> Hat for this particular file.  Fine; both Stuart and Pete have filed
>> their ICLAs and have received their accounts (I've not checked the
>> other files, but I assume they are similarly attributed).  However,
>> Jason actually committed the code.  This is not necessarily wrong; Red
>> Hat does have a corporate CLA on file with the ASF, and Jason is a Red
>> Hat employee.  IMO then the only thing missing is an unequivocal
>> statement on the parts of the Red Hat-employed DeltaSpike committers
>> that any of them (or, in this case, at least Jason) is authorized to
>> license whatever Solder, etc. code he sees fit, on Red Hat's behalf,
>> to Apache for inclusion in the DeltaSpike codebase.  Just because Red
>> Hat has filed the CCLA does not mean that every line of their code is
>> now up for grabs, and I see nothing to this explicit effect in the
>> incubation proposal, so that connection from point A to point B is
>> essential.  We must be able to show clear provenance for any code that
>> we bring in, regardless of the source, so again, please don't feel
>> "singled out."  The builder code is the first example I thought of,
>> and I'm pretty sure that nothing has, as yet, been added from source
>> other than CODI/Solder.  Now, if the Solder code is rather to be
>> contributed on the basis of the individual authors' copyrights, making
>> sure everything that has already been added is kosher will require a
>> little more work, but ultimately the situation is the same:  one of
>> the copyright holders needs to have been responsible for licensing the
>> code for ASF use, although it is fine by me if that authorization
>> comes in blanket form and I'm perfectly willing to take committers at
>> their word wrt to the Red Hat or any similar situation.  Finally, if
>> and when we do end up with any code being officially licensed from Red
>> Hat rather than from the individual authors (or if I've misinterpreted
>> the spirit of the Solder copyright notice), then Red Hat would also
>> need to be credited in the project's NOTICE file.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for addressing my concerns (or pointing out what
>> I've missed that proactively addressed them),
>> Matt

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