> I think it would be worth creating a space where people > can contribute their own additions to WiX that are of > signification value but did not make it through the legal > process. A WiX-contrib project, or something like that.
[robmen] I truly hope it won't come to that. Creating a separate project would essentially fork the development of the WiX toolset. Forks invariably create confusion about the direction and future of a project. Forks also split the development effort to some degree which rarely helps the project as a whole. I do not believe that there is anything stopping you from copying the code and creating another version of the WiX toolset but that would be a truly sad day from my point of view. > I still think the "single copyright owner" argument is void; > anyone is free to extend WiX without signing the agreement > and then you have a mix of Microsoft-copyrighted code and > 3th-party copyrighted code. [robmen] The code that you get from the project at http://wix.sourceforge.net and http://sourceforge.net/projects/wix has a single copyright on it because all contributions thus far have gone through the assignment agreement process. As noted above, as far as I know, it is entirely possible for someone to create a WiX toolset that has multiple copyright owners. However, that code would not be available from the WiX toolset project. I would also like to point out that I don't care for the assignment agreement process today. I push back on it regularly. However, I'm not a lawyer so I don't get to argue what is valid and void when it comes to legal discussions. On this issue, all I can do is take feedback from here and encourage the legal team to consider other options. >That said, I do understand the need for such an assignment > for a project that is managed by Microsoft-personnel. [robmen] I don't understand the fact that the WiX toolset is "managed by Microsoft-personnel" matters at all when you take into account that the Free Software Foundation, Apache Foundation, and others requires an assignment agreement with almost identical wording as ours here. This isn't an issue of Microsoft vs. non-Microsoft. This is an issue of how much legal risk do you want to incorporate into your project. The more risk we introduce into the WiX toolset the more risk we introduce into all of those products using the WiX toolset. Personally, I want the WiX toolset to be able to reach the greatest number of people possible as the best MSI creation tool available (not that we're there yet <smile/>). Incorporating legal risk into the WiX toolset doesn't move us closer to that goal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
