Arnulf,<br><br>There is nothing wrong with Intellectual Property*. OSGeo and other Open Source Projects have considerable IP invested in them.<br><br>There may come a time when OSGeo needs to defend 'its' IP.<br><br>
<br>As to potentially engaging lawyers, there is always FSF, perhaps.<br><br>See [1] for an example of where the Debian Community engaged FSF to look at software patents.<br><br>Bruce<br><br>[1] <a href="http://www.debian.org/reports/patent-faq" target="_blank">http://www.debian.org/reports/patent-faq</a><br>
<br><br>* I do not refer to software patents in this statement.<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:12pt">
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</span></font><blockquote><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:12pt"><b>From: </b>Arnulf Christl <<a href="http://arnulf@osgeo.org" target="_blank">arnulf@osgeo.org</a>><br>
<b>Reply-To: </b><<a href="http://arnulf@osgeo.org" target="_blank">arnulf@osgeo.org</a>><br>
<b>Date: </b>Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:29:02 +1100<br>
<b>To: </b><<a href="http://incubator@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">incubator@lists.osgeo.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [Incubator] Incubation Committee meeting Monday 17th<br>
<br>
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</span></font><blockquote><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:12pt">On 01/15/2012 05:57 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:<br>
> On 14/01/12 11:00, Arnulf Christl wrote:<br>
>> On 01/13/2012 06:05 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:<br>
>>> On 12/01/12 23:46, Daniel Morissette wrote:<br>
>>>> I agree that we should avoid implying that we had a formal<br>
>>>> legal/lawyer review. Perhaps the "Legal" section could be named<br>
>>>> "Intellectual Property and License"?<br>
>>> Good idea, I've updated the title in the wiki with "Intellectual<br>
>>> Property and License"<br>
>>><br>
>> 2Ct sideways: ...if at all possible I would try to avoid using the term<br>
>> "Intellectual Property" in official statements because it is a malicious<br>
>> Meme. Simply by using it we subscribe to the concept. But Open Source<br>
>> does not function on "intellectual property" (if I ever have to use it,<br>
>> I at least put it in quotes).<br>
>><br>
>> Best regards,<br>
>> Arnulf<br>
>><br>
> This section about checking license, patents, copyright, trademark is<br>
> becoming tricky to title.<br>
> "Legal" has been rejected, as it implies a lawyer has been involved. (We<br>
> don't have budget for lawyers).<br>
><br>
> "Intellectual Property" is now being suggested against, as it goes<br>
> against of free-loving philosophy.<br>
><br>
> Arnulf, would you care to suggest an alternative heading?<br>
> Would you be happy with quotes inserted as:<br>
> License and "Intellectual Property"<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Project_Graduation_Checklist#Intellectual_Property_and_LicenseLicense" target="_blank">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Project_Graduation_Checklist#Intellectual_Property_and_LicenseLicense</a><br>
<br>
Cameron,<br>
I think that we can use the term legal and that we do have funding (and<br>
more so that we can raise more if it would become necessary). Using the<br>
term legal in my opinion should also not be a problem because even if we<br>
"had" (as in employed) one or two lawyers it would not make any<br>
difference because as a global organization we are potentially involved<br>
with hundreds of legal systems. Maybe our Rest-of-the-World perception<br>
is playing tricks on us again, there is no one legal system that we have<br>
to defend against (although it seems there is one legal system which is<br>
especially dumb wrt software and soup - or as they called it "SOPA").<br>
<br>
Just to add to my earlier post: We should not suggest that we deny the<br>
existence of "Intellectual Property". Just like we respect proprietary<br>
business models (but believe that they are inferior to Open Source<br>
models) and we do not support "piracy" (yet another word that has<br>
connotations which I do not subscribe to).<br>
<br>
On top of this I believe that we do have quite a lot of competence legal<br>
wise in the broader community of OSGeo and should not undervalue this<br>
just because we have no legalese speaking native of one of many<br>
jurisdictions.<br>
<br>
Hope this makes sense.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
Arnulf.<br>
<br>
--<br>
President, OSGeo<br>
<a href="http://www.osgeo.org" target="_blank">http://www.osgeo.org</a><br>
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