[OpenLayers-Dev] CC0 Dedication instead of CLA

[Tim Schaub]

Hey Chris-

Just wanted to say I like the sounds of this.  I haven't had time to 
look into the details, but I think simplifying the process is a good idea.

So, consider me not against it (for it) and considering it helpful.

Tim

On 7/26/11 8:00 AM, christopher.schmidt at nokia.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It seems that CLAs and CLA management are still a significant hurdle to some
> contributors. Instead of always requiring a CLA, what do people think
> about instead allowing developers to simply dedicate changes to CC0, and then
> we are in a position where we can use the changes without concern over copyright?
>
> The FSF has recently stated that they consider CC0 to be a free software license
> compatible with the GPL:
>
>    https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/27081
>
> and has recommended CC0 for code snippets in documentation:
>
>    http://labs.creativecommons.org/2011/05/27/fsf-recommends-cc0-for-code-snippets-in-documentation/
>
> If a user who has written code is willing to simply state "I am the author/copyright
> holder of this code and am dedicating it to the public domain under the terms
> at http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/." then I can't see any reason
> we can't use these works in OpenLayers; especially for very brief snippets of code,
> this seems like the best way to move forward, rather than requiring CLAs
> that slow down development and impede developer contributions.
>
> Is there anyone who is against such a thing? (Is there anyone who would
> find such a change helpful?)
>
> I'll note that this is unlikely to solve the issues found by larger organizations,
> especially governmental ones, but it seems like it is a way to skip the
> CLA process for simple contributions.
>
> Thanks,
> Chris_______________________________________________
> Dev mailing list
> Dev at lists.osgeo.org
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-- 
Tim Schaub
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Enterprise support for open source geospatial.