Peter Lairo wrote:
> I would hate to have put all this effort into Mozilla and then, when
> everything is working great, have some copany come up and say: "we're
> taking this away from you now", or "bgzilla, or whatever structure you
> are using is no longer available".
Nobody, including Netscape, can "take away" the Mozilla code from you.
The code is released under a license (really, licenses) that give you
certain broad rights, and those rights can't be terminated except for
very specific reasons outlined in the license(s). And as I mentioned
before, no one company or individual "owns" all the Mozilla code, in the
sense of holding copyright to it; copyright on the various Mozilla
source files is spread among a number of companies and individuals.
As for "taking away" Bugzilla or other mozilla.org-related systems,
having mozilla.org be a formal legal entity wouldn't necessarily make
any difference there. The continued existence of those systems is more
dependent on having someone willing to fund their operation.
Even if a separate organization (nonprofit or otherwise) were operating
the mozilla.org web site and other mozilla.org-related systems, there
wouldn't be anything (in legal terms) to prevent the board of directors
of such an organization from shutting down the systems and disposing of
all the organization's assets, if the board decided it was in the best
interests of the organization. (And if mozilla.org were a nonprofit
organization then of course it would still have to find some source of
funding to keep Bugzilla, etc., running.)
Frank
P.S. To repeat the standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is
not legal advice. Also, I am speaking for myself and not necessarily for
mozilla.org.
--
Frank Hecker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
