Simon <simon80 at gmail.com> wrote: > But on the other hand, if contributors are required to sign and _explicitly_ acknowledge that they've read the agreement
That assumption is incorrect. As it stands, contributors are _not_ required to acknowledge the agreement in order to commit to the OpenGraphics SVN. If we were to implement this requirement in a legally binding manner we would have to 1) Adapt MySQL's agreement for our purposes 2) Disable everyone's SVN access until they physically signed the agreement 3) Have someone collect and safekeep the agreements from all contributors so that they can be used as evidence in case a contributor decides to sue Traversal Technology or the Open Graphics Project for copyright/patent violation. The only alternative to the paperwork-intensive approach described above is to explicitly list the conditions for submitting code in every file. This way, no contributor can claim to not have known or agreed to the conditions, because they themselves are either uploading the conditions (in the case of svn add) or leaving the conditions intact within an existing file that they've modified (in the case of svn commit). So I think the policy that Timothy has outlined at http://wiki.duskglow.com/tiki-index.php?page=Subversion+Commit+Policy is appropriate. > Those clauses can go in documentation for contributors, on the website, sort of like what MySQL has at http://forge.mysql.com/contribute/cla.php For MySQL, this is not just documentation but a legally binding contract that every contributor must physically sign and mail in. > I can think of a few reasons not to let anyone "own" a specific part of a project I think the legal peace-of-mind that comes with listing all contributors within the copyright notice of every file they've modified far outweighs any psychological drawbacks. Many problems can arise if the copyright owner is not listed in the file it leaves the file's licensing status in limbo. For example, imagine a source code file that says See the file COPYING for more information. instead of a proper copyright and licensing statement. It's possible for someone to move this source code file into another project that has a different COPYING file and thus subvert the original intent of the author. This isn't just hypothetical it has happened in real life to GPL-licensed projects such as Konsole (http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/164207). > there's a record of every contribution in the svn repository. Is anyone making backups of the SVN log? How about sending all the changes to a commits mailing list? Vlad ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
