On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 05:31:48PM -0400, Derrick Brashear wrote: > > As we move to make OpenAFS exist as a legal entity, this process needs > to be formalized. One possibility would be to have a contributor > agreement, similar to existing agreements from other projects, which > at minimum any committer would need to sign. However there may be > benefit in having any member of the foundation sign the agreement as a > condition to membership (and thus making it easier to provide > resources to all members as the capability to do so is possible). > > So, 2 questions for the community would be, > 1) would you find a contributor agreement tenable (and what would make > it not tenable for either you or your employer)
That of course would depend on the terms of the agreement. I think any contributions I make on my own time I would want to make with a license that is Open Source Initiative (http://www.opensource.org/) approved (http://www.opensource.org/licenses), and consistent with the material around it. For example, if the rest of the code in the directory I am working on is the IBM license, I can go with that. I might use a license that is less restrictive than the material around my contribution (e.g. BSD in with a bunch of GPL stuff). But I would not use a license that is more restrictive, as that reduces the value of the material other people have contributed without their say-so. > 2) would having all members of the foundation sign one as a condition > of membership (where "sign" may not necessarily involve paper or > physical copies, if that can be made to work) be an issue? As to a non-physical signature most U.S. states and Canadian provinces have a digital signature statute that covers this sort of situation. I suspect that the law of the state of incorporation would govern, but that's a point for an attorney. I can imagine a non-developer joining the foundation as, e.g. an interested user. I would not care to put off such a person by requiring them to sign a legal licensing agreement that binds them for a contribution they aren't even contemplating. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
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