I also see this as great news for the future of OpenSim. Thanks to everyone involved in organising this - doing nasty bureaucratic stuff when you'd much rather be coding!
Neil Canham CTO vComm Solutions On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 4:49 AM, Fleep Tuque <[email protected]> wrote: > From my perspective, this announcement sounds like extremely welcome and > exciting news! > > It's always seemed very unfortunate that communities that should be able to > collaborate and benefit from each others' knowledge and experience haven't > been able to because of these kinds of legal concerns, so anything that > helps reduce those barriers sounds like a positive to me. In the grand > scheme of things, virtual worlds and the metaverse are still pretty niche > interests/technologies, and Second Life and OpenSim niches with that niche - > better to combine the talents, skills, and passions of those involved in > both platforms if it can be done safely and reasonably without jeopardizing > OpenSim's future. > > It's also good to hear you're pursuing a non-profit foundation model and > separating the functions of the board and the community based contribution > model. That kind of setup has worked very well for some of the most > successful opensource projects and I think those of you on the founding > board have shown good instincts for the kinds of stewardship the foundation > will need. > > Congratulations and I look forward to seeing how this develops. :) > > > - Chris/Fleep > > > > Chris M. Collins (SL: Fleep Tuque) > Project Manager, UC Second Life > Second Life Ambassador, Ohio Learning Network > UCit Instructional & Research Computing > University of Cincinnati > 406E Zimmer Hall > PO Box 210088 > Cincinnati, OH 45221-0088 > (513)556-3018 > [email protected] > > UC Second Life: http://homepages.uc.edu/secondlife > OLN Second Life: http://www.oln.org/emerging_technologies/emtech.php > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 9:21 PM, Justin Clark-Casey < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> As I'm sure everybody on these lists is aware, OpenSimulator currently has >> some restrictions on who can contribute code to the project ( >> http://opensimulator.org/**wiki/Contributions_Policy<http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Contributions_Policy> >> ). >> >> The most controversial of these is the one that prevents contributions >> from people who have studied the Linden Lab viewer within the past 6 months. >> >> This policy came about because the early core developers wanted to be very >> cautious when dealing with a project that was intimately intertwined with >> OpenSimulator through a common virtual world protocol and concept, but which >> was licensed under the copyleft GPL license rather than OpenSimulator's BSD >> license. It was also inspired by bad, though unrelated, early experiences >> of unwanted inclusion of GPL code within OpenSimulator. >> >> However, this rule increasingly restricts progress and innovation. To >> state the obvious, it effectively stops Linden Lab viewer and third party >> viewer developers from contributing to OpenSimulator and it stops >> OpenSimulator developers from contributing code to those viewers. >> >> We do want to do something about this. In very broad terms, there are two >> choices of action. Either we simply drop the 6 month restriction or we >> establish a Contributor's License Agreement (CLA) to explicitly clarify that >> a developer has the necessary rights to contribute the code that they're >> giving. >> >> Simply dropping the restriction is tempting. However, the conditions >> under which it was established have not changed - the core of the Linden Lab >> viewer and derivatives is still under the copyleft LGPL license. Some >> people think that in general such restrictions are entirely unnecessary but >> others think that it's a reasonable precaution in the absence of a CLA. >> >> So the other alternative is to have that CLA. This is the route that >> we've started going down. The proposal is to have a CLA by which a >> contributor explicitly grants a copyright license over their contributions. >> Each contributor will continue to own their own code (i.e. there is no >> transfer of copyright). >> >> Again, there is considerable debate over CLAs, with some people seeing >> them as essential and others thinking that they are entirely unnecessary. >> However, many open-source projects have CLAs (Apache, Django, Python, the >> Linden Lab viewer) so we would not be in bad company. Having to submit a >> CLA might also reduce casual 'drive-by' patches, though we would make CLA >> submitting as easy as possible - by accepting them electronically, for >> instance. >> >> In order to grant a copyright license there needs to be a receiving >> entity. To this end, we are in the process of setting up an organisation >> known as the Overte Foundation. The Overte Foundation will receive the >> copyright licenses and become the official distributor of OpenSimulator >> rather than individual core developers. This will put it in a good position >> to deal with code origin or other issues, if any should ever arise. >> >> Once the CLA is complete, the current contribution restrictions to >> OpenSimulator will be removed. It will be down to each developer (including >> core developers) to affirm via the CLA that they have the necessary rights >> over the code that they are contributing. >> >> One advantage of going down the foundation route is that it will also be >> able to promote and support OpenSimulator in other ways, quite possibly >> incorporating members of the community other than just developers. The >> foundation could also extend to cover other open-source >> virtual-environment/virtual-**world projects and components. In the >> short term, though, we will be concentrating on establishing the CLA. >> >> At some point soon we would be very grateful for donations to the Overte >> Foundation in order to deal with some of the costs involved in setting >> things up and for ongoing support and promotion of OpenSimulator. Setup >> costs should not be too high since Ben Esplin of Pillsbury Law is very >> kindly donating time and expertise (he also helped OSgrid establish their >> organisation). >> >> We're actually still in the process of setting up the foundation so we'll >> only be requesting donations once we have a bank account for them. However, >> we wanted to get this out in the open now so that people know what is being >> proposed and so that we can get feedback. >> >> For a much shorter public statement and FAQ about these topics shorn of >> the historical context, please see >> >> http://opensimulator.org/wiki/**Foundation<http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Foundation> >> http://opensimulator.org/wiki/**Foundation_FAQ<http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Foundation_FAQ> >> >> I will be acting as the first Overte Foundation president, with Diva as >> treasurer, Melanie as secretary and Nebadon and Ben as initial board >> members. The foundation itself will not directly control OpenSimulator >> development - this will remain with the OpenSimulator team and community as >> it does now. >> >> Discussion about this is very welcome, whether supporting or critical. >> I'm logging off now so will likely answer any points tomorrow. Of course, >> other core developers are very welcome to chip in. >> >> Best, >> >> -- >> Justin Clark-Casey (justincc) >> http://justincc.org/blog >> http://twitter.com/justincc >> ______________________________**_________________ >> Opensim-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.berlios.de/**mailman/listinfo/opensim-users<https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-users> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Opensim-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-users > >
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