There is an interesting discussion that has been going on for the last week on the incubator general mailing list: http://www.nabble.com/-Vote--Incubating-Project-Policy-tf3158407.html regarding this and similar topics.
#2 I believe was clarified by Robert Burrell Donkin in http://tinyurl.com/yqsvdd I believe David's "almost any case" scenario is speaking specifically of contributions by committers, not of contributions by noncommitters as I had understood it when I replied. Please let me know if I've misinterpreted Robert's message. I wanted to clarify that for everyone instead of leaving the question open-ended like it is. --- Chris Howe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://incubator.apache.org/ip-clearance/index.html > > makes it _almost clear to me. Two things remain cloudy to me (my > original reading of that link assumed that did not apply to TLPs, > thanks for clarifying Jacques!): > > 1) What is the lowest common denominator of when contributions should > be utilizing the incubator's IP Clearance procedures? It would seem > that many contributions already should have utilized such protocol > (especially the additional notes section of that link for - multiple > contributors, specifically). If many OFBiz contributions have > already > utilized such, is this a process transparent to the community or is > it > more internal to the ASF? Judging by the other links on that page, > the > former seems true. > > 2)The bug scenario > Since a non-committing contributor can have no reasonable expectation > that his contribution will get put into the project, the only intent > that he can show (through individual, joint work or otherwise) is > that > he wished his local copy to be free of that bug and that he wanted > others, not specifically the ASF, to benefit from his exercise. This > would suggest the need for a greater use of the incubator's IP > clearance procedures as nothing really qualifies as "created _for > Apache OFBiz". > > In any event, absent posing questions regarding these topics to legal > discuss, I guess the only way my fears can be alleviated is by seeing > the PMC more frequently (or more transparently if it is already > frequent) using the incubator IP clearance procedures. The rest can > be > left to the invisible hand of the open source market to balance the > burdens of administrivia and the benefits of community cohesiveness. > > --- "David E. Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > On Jan 28, 2007, at 11:46 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote: > > > > > Jonathon, > > > > > > Just one word to be sure you understand your responsability by > > > opening your "sandbox" to other users without contracts between > you > > > (hence creating a joint work as pointed out by Chris). You will > > > have to get through this procedure > > > http://incubator.apache.org/ip-clearance/index.html > > > > Not necessarily. It is up to the committers to review this, but the > > > general guideline is to distinguish (as explained on that page and > in > > > > related documents) based on how and why it was developed. > > > > For example, if someone fixes a bug in OFBiz in almost any case if > it > > > > is contributed back then the how and why is pretty clear. The > amount > > > > of time that lapses between doing it an contributing it doesn't > > really matter. > > > > > If you don't and don't tell us (commiters) you will be the sole > > > responsable because of our good faith (not knowing that it comes > > not > > > only from you). > > > > This is a dangerous idea Jacques. It is the responsibility of all > > committers to make sure the source of the code is clear, especially > > > where it may have been developed independently and not intended to > go > > > > into OFBiz but someone else took it and contributed it. Under no > > circumstances is it okay for that code to go into OFBiz, and it is > > > ultimately the responsibility of the PMC to take care of this, and > > > that responsibility is delegated to non-PMC committers (though PMC > > > members should still review commits and issues to check on this). > > > > > This is only my opininon and not commiters's or PMC's or even > > > ASF's, of course. > > > > Hopefully what I wrote clears this up a bit. Again, the documents > on > > > > www.apache.org/dev clarify a lot of these issues. > > > > -David > > > > > > > >
