[Incubator] RE: OSGeo Holding Copyright

[Frank Warmerdam]

Rich Steele wrote:
> My understanding is that nobody would be required to assign copyright to
> the foundation.  This was discussed at several points in Chicago and I
> had thought was a fairly fundamental understanding that copyright was
> not required to be contributed to the foundation.

Rich,

Right, that was my understanding too.  No project would be *required*
to assign copyright.

> Here is Larry Rosen's take, from his free book:
> http://www.rosenlaw.com/Rosen_Ch02.pdf
> 
> "Th[e] technique of copyright assignment is generally neither useful nor
> necessary, because an open source license can convey all rights as
> effectively as an assignment. There are only a few limited occasions
> when an assignment is preferable [generally relating to enforcement of
> the copyright].... Everything that an open source project needs,
> including the rights to make copies, create derivative works, and
> distribute the software, is provided by any of the open source licenses
> described in this book as readily as by an assignment. Contributors and
> the open source
> projects that receive those contributions can usually accomplish their
> objectives with an open source license instead of an assignment."

Well, my thinking is that assigning copyright makes it easier for
the foundation to relicense if needed, and potentially puts the
foundation in a stronger enforcement position.  I read some of Larry
Rosen's book, and he also mentions the issue of what would happen to
the copyright if I died or was incapacitated.  It might become effectively
impossible to get relicensing permission from my estate or heirs.

That said, it isn't likely I will get all of GDAL assigned so it is
of limited value.

The other reason I want to do it is that I see it as a sign of
my personal (and my projects) commitment to the foundation, and
my personal willingness to give up a degree of control in my project.

> It certainly isn't precluded, and if you want to do so I don't think
> anyone would object (quite the opposite).  And you can also try to
> encourage others to do so, but I think many would object to assigning
> copyright to the foundation (particularly since the incubation committee
> has now voted down even the idea of requiring a contributor license
> agreement, which is far less onerous than a copyright assignment).

Well, there is a difference between us voting to not require the CLA,
and us saying that few would have been willing to sign it.  The feedback
I got is that most committers would have been ok with signing the CLA.
However, we didn't want to lose those that wouldn't, and we didn't want
to have to be hassling casual contributors about CLA paperwork all the
time.

I would add that copyright assignment does not really cost me anything
except my own ability to relicense my code as desired in the future.  For
instance.

Larry's book seems to suggest the legal process of assignment is a bit
involved.  In the past (for my MapServer contributions for instance) I
just personally went through altering the copyright headers to list
UMN as the copyright holder instead of me.  But I gather that may not
be the proper way of doing it.  Is that so?  What sort of paperwork would
we use for an assignment?  When creating new files can I just create
them with OSGeo as the copyright holder without alot of additional
assignment hassle?

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org