On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 08:20:24PM +0000, Frank Hecker wrote: > 2009/9/22 Karsten Wade <kw...@redhat.com>: > > Can you clarify for me how this is supposed to work with blending > > content between CLA-yes and CLA-no? > > > > For example, Mr. Able wants his IP managed under a CLA, and Ms. Baker > > prefers to just license it directly under the CC-BY-SA. They both are > > going to work together on a chapter, pulling in content from OSS > > Watch, which is also managed under the CLA. This content is blended > > in to a single chapter. How do you sort out later if there is a > > question that would be resolved with the CLA, but Ms. Baker's IP is > > all over the place under a single license? > > That would be a problem. A CLA scheme works best if everyone is under > it, so that there's a single entity that can have responsibility for > holding the associated rights (i.e., those granted under the CLA) and > licensing the content to the general public. In the absence of that > then a CLA is much less useful. > > A possible alternative would be to require that everyone contributing > to a given chapter sign a CLA, but I'm not sure that would be either > practical or useful.
That's what I was afraid of. In that case, I am firmly on the side of doing a CLA for everyone. I don't see any reason to object. I know they can be a barrier to entry, but it's a minimal barrier for what is always going to be a relatively small-sized project. What we can is important, including clarity on how to meld content. As long as the CLA doesn't permit relicensing under a more restrictive license, there shouldn't be a reason to object signing it. What would be best is if we can do an online, click-through CLA. Fedora has done this for the last few years. Is that possible? Because, yeah, print, sign, and FAX are more of a PITA. :) I personally don't even want to start looking at OSS Watch-sourced content until I know how it can be used; but I'm anxious to see soon so it can influence what is being written. - Karsten -- Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Community Gardener http://quaid.fedorapeople.org AD0E0C41
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