On 12/16/06, Martin van den Bemt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> -1 from me.
>
> Harmony doesn't let anyone commit on their project unless they they
> sign a statement saying they haven't looked at Sun's source code[1].
> AFAIK this is a similar issue and the POI policy [2] is designed to
> protect POI, which as a user of POI is a good thing IMO. Even if this
> fear is actually unfounded seems like a sensible policy to err on the
> side of caution.
Just FYI, the policy doesn't mean anything legally, so it doesn't help anyone.
We have the ICLA that
covers that. Keeping POI SVN closed, is as far as I could see, just based on
the assumption that it
means something. Besides that if this is a policy of some kind, where are the
records ?
Why is it any different than Harmony? If someone has received
knowledge of MS propriety formats under a NDA then wouldn't using that
knowledge to contribute to POI put the POI project at risk? If the
ICLA means that legally from an ASF POV it doesn't matter since the
responsibility/liability would be with the contributor then the same
logic could be applied to harmony. Seems to me that even if the "ASF
is covered" at the end of the day avoiding a legal issue with a big
entity such as MS is far more desirable than getting into a "tangle"
in the first place.
I also think its a mistake to deal with whatever issues people think
there are in POI via a vote. Back in March the POI devs voted to
exclude POI from this policy of opening SVN access. If we think the
reason underlying POI's exclusion from this policy is not valid then
it would have been far better to start a discussion with them
regarding this first - rather than launching straight into a vote. I'd
have rather seem an attempt at consensus first rather than going
straight for conflict.
Seems to me that svn access isn't the root of the issue here and
therefore a red herring, since changing that isn't IMO going to
resolve whatever the real issues people think there are.
Niall
Mvgr,
Martin
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