Some time ago I had registered the SurveyOS Project with the Software Freedom Conservancy. (http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/overview/) The services they offered my project included legal protection and pursuit of license and trademark violations.
I think this is very similar to what Bruce Perens and Frank are speaking of. I have found that the staff at the Free Software Conservancy fails to respond to most of my e-mails, which is very frustrating. It was really an idea and an organization that I wanted to support and work with. I think it would be great if the OSGeo could participate in a similar organization. Landon (A.K.A. The Sunburned Surveyor) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Frank Warmerdam Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 9:56 AM To: OSGeo Discussions Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Liability protection project - call forparticipants Allan Doyle wrote: > Thanks for bringing this to our attention, it's a topic that has renewed > relevance. > > From the sound of it, OSGeo itself has too many eggs in its basket to > risk having them broken by providing a shield. Allan, Well, this is a concern at least. I still think OSGeo *might* be the appropriate organization to serve as a liability shield for developers on OSGeo projects. But as a director I am also quite nervous about taking on liability for the organization, and I can't help but think about what would happen to various OSGeo efforts if the foundation was sucked under in a big legal battle. The reason I suspect OSGeo may be the right organization is that it already has established a reporting structure and rules around what constitutes appropriate contribution to foundation projects. By that measure I think we are already "directing" in the sense that Bruce mentions. > But that ought not stop > geo-foss developers from either joining up with Bruce's idea or from > setting up a geo-clone of that idea. > > Ideally, the legal issues would only have to be worked out once, and > everyone who wanted could join the "shield". There's nothing inherently > different about geo in this case, is there? I do not believe there is anything special about geo. For now I'm mainly watching with interest - especially I'm looking forward to seeing what some real lawyers at the Software Freedom Law Center have to say about the topic. I doubt that we should be doing much in the meantime other than expressing interest to Bruce if we think this is an important thing to do. Best regards, -- ---------------------------------------+-------------------------------- ------ I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, [EMAIL PROTECTED] light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam and watch the world go round - Rush | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
