Hey David (others), I want to avoid being in a potentially similar situation that Ofbiz was in prior to Apache incubation.
Who owns the code that people contribute via svn? (rhetorical question follows) Prior to Apache Incubation was Open for Business a legal entity that could accept ownership? If it wasn't, I find myself in a similar situation in that ofbiz-sandbox isn't a legal entity. As far as my contributions that are OFBiz related, I don't care how others use it as long as it doesn't prevent me from using it. How can I ensure that others who post to the sandbox svn are making their commits in a similar manner? Since solutions provided in the sandbox have a potential to being applicable to the Apache Ofbiz project, what can be done ahead of time to ensure that someone has the ability to create a patch based on sandbox code, upload it to Apache OFBiz's JIRA and legally be able to click the "Grant license to ASF for inclusion in ASF works" radio button? Because the intention of the sandbox is to facilitate collaboration, it's likely the person creating the patch doesn't own the code he's submitting in it's entirety. I want the sandbox to supplement Apache Ofbiz's efforts and make it easier to develop solutions. I don't want contributions to have legal ramifications because of who owned the contribution when it was all in the spirit of open source. This issue isn't unique to the sandbox either. Unless Tim and the others that contributed for the shopping cart improvement are all employees of Hotwax and Tim was contributing patches as a function of Hotwax's operations, they face a similar legal question. Anil and Ashish would have potential for legal recourse later even if they don't voice objections today and even if they have iCLAs on file with the ASF as they weren't the donors of their work. I'm not saying it's a valid argument, but does at least pass the standard for a nuisance one. And if your 25 years or older in the United States, chances are you already understand the costs of a nuisance lawsuit. Thanks for your feedback or if you can point me to someone in the ASF who can give me a more definitive answer. Regards, Chris --- David E Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Jan 4, 2007, at 4:43 PM, Chris Howe wrote: > > > For those of you interested, a project for a > sandbox > > has been approved on sourceforge.net > > (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ofbiz-sandbox/). > The > > goal is to provide an area that you can > collaborate on > > ideas for implementations based on Apache Open for > > Business. These collaborations can be from simple > > feature improvements, to showcasing a particular > > change, to complete components, to a half-baked > idea > > that you want to get the gist out to and let > someone > > with some more skills or time help work on. > > > > Please understand that this is currently (and > > depending on Apache OFBiz's interest in this side > > project, perhaps permanently), completely outside > of > > the Apache Ofbiz project and has no relation to > the > > ASF other than simply being geeked about the > current > > and future Apache Open for Business project. Code > > that gets added to the ofbiz-sandbox may never > make it > > into the Apache OFBiz project. I have no control > over > > such matters. > > Thanks for clarifying this distinction. My > experience with the ASF is > still somewhat limited, but form what I know so far > this sort of > thing is for the most part discouraged at the ASF. > There is an > informal "project" that is like a sandbox for ASF > committers only > that is meant to be a pre-incubator type of thing to > explore > different things and facilitate collaboration in > those. > > Just because it's unofficial, there's certainly no > problem with this > from the OFBiz perspective, and we could probably > even find a place > for a link to on the OFBiz site or at least on > Confluence. It is the > intent of OFBiz that anyone can build whatever they > want on top of > it, and if you're interested in facilitating this, > go for it! > > > There is no level of quality necessary to > contribute. > > Just do your best not to wreck someone else's > > progress. > > > > I think the goal of anyone who would be > contributing > > any time or code to the ofbiz-sandbox is doing so > in > > the spirit of open source so that others can > benefit > > from a solution they've discovered. Therefore to > > prevent any potential roadblocks in Apache Ofbiz > > adopting solutions formed in the sandbox, all > > contributed code will be under the Apache 2.0 > license > > and I suppose donated to the ASF. If anyone knows > > what I need to do to ensure a roadblock isn't > created, > > please let me know (collect iCLA's from potential > > committers, ensure Apache already has an iCLA for > the > > potential committer ??) As soon as I get that > > question answered, I'll start adding people who > want > > to be added to the svn commit access on the sf.net > > site. > > Before the code touches the OFBiz code base it > doesn't matter, you > can do manage things however you want. I wouldn't > worry about CLAs > until code starts moving to OFBiz, and even then if > it doesn't have > to go through incubation CLAs won't be needed > anyway. > > Still, if there are large blocks of code developed > by a bunch of > different people the licensing issues get trickier > and such things > _may_ have to go through incubation to get into the > OFBiz code > base... When you have a bunch of fingers in a pot > things do get > trickier... > > > Personally, I would prefer to use these mailing > lists > > for discussion of things in the sandbox (to > encourage > > talk from more people), but if that is or becomes > a > > hassle for the Apache OFBiz project, just say the > word > > and I'll maintain a list or two off of the sf.net > > site. > > I don't think this is the best of ideas... If it > relates to the > development of OFBiz itself, please use the ofbiz > dev mailing list. > If it relates to the use of OFBiz itself, please use > the ofbiz user > mailing list. If it relates to the development of > something that is > _not_ OFBiz and it isn't a question or discussion > about how to use > OFBiz, using separate mailing lists would be much > better. Not doing > so could (will...) be very confusing, especially to > people who are > not up to date on all of the happenings around here. > Even now I'm not > comfortable sometimes with the level of opentaps > discussion on the > ofbiz mailing lists, but I suppose that is a natural > consequence of > the way things are structured in that project (not > that anything that > is bad or whatever), and hopefully we'll be able to > distinguish > things more clearly from the OFBiz side in the > future (and hopefully > Si will continue the same thing on the opentaps/OSS > side). > > -David > > > >
