<div dir="ltr"><div>Thanks Greg</div><div>I have written up some ideas <a href="https://qgis-australia.org/qgis/succession-planning/">here</a> that I hope goes someway for future planners. It scares me as I was in an organisation that went from totally support OS to trying to rid it with a vengeance. <br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 19 Jun 2024 at 21:39, Greg Troxel via QGIS-Developer <<a href="mailto:qgis-developer@lists.osgeo.org">qgis-developer@lists.osgeo.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Emma Hain via QGIS-Developer <<a href="mailto:qgis-developer@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">qgis-developer@lists.osgeo.org</a>> writes:<br>
<br>
> This is very interesting and a real part of OS software management in<br>
> regards to maintainance once the creator wishes to retire (and rightly<br>
> so!). On top of that, if the ownership sits with an organisation. For<br>
> clarification, does NGA or do you, Calvin, own them?<br>
><br>
> I imagine if it is from one person to another, this is an informal<br>
> handover, but what happens when it is an organisation? Does an Assignment<br>
> of Ownership need to take place?<br>
<br>
This is a little complicated. I have no knowledge of the details of<br>
this situation but have dealt with open source licensing in the context<br>
of US government contractors and US law. Generally:<br>
<br>
When a person writes code, they hold copyright to it, except:<br>
<br>
If they have executed a copyright assignment, they don't. This is<br>
typically either for contractors (either when the parties pretend it<br>
isn't employment or when it really isn't) or for individuals who<br>
assign to e.g. FSF. Less happily, it can be some forms of CLA to<br>
some company.<br>
<br>
When an employed person writes code "within the scope of<br>
employment", then the employer holds copyright. This is the "work<br>
for hire" doctrine.<br>
<br>
Works of the US government are not subject to copyright and are in<br>
the public domain. (Different countries are different here,<br>
massively.)<br>
<br>
Code under an open source license does not need assignment for others<br>
to improve and distribute it, because the license grants those<br>
permissions.<br>
<br>
A plugin is arguably a derived work of qgis, and thus must be<br>
distributed under a compatible license. (I think the project should<br>
express this as doctrine and decline to support or interact with<br>
(shun) plugins that don't have compatible licenses.) So even if the<br>
US government does not hold copyright in their code, the resulting<br>
code is a derived work of qgis and can only be distributed under the<br>
GPL.<br>
<br>
Contributions to the plugin from others (e.g. if someone submitted a<br>
non-trivial change and it was merged) are copyrighted by them and thus<br>
a declared license leads to inbound=outbound terms, making it clear<br>
that the submitted change is licensed under the plugin's license.<br>
<br>
There are social issues about forks, separately from copyright, but<br>
Calvin's message is quite clear that someone who wants to maintain<br>
them (and have the updated/maintained code exist in the qgis world<br>
under the original names) would be good.<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="margin-bottom:20px;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Emma Hain — Product Manager/Senior GIS Analyst<br>
<a href="mailto:emma@north-road.com" style="color:rgb(78,141,175);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">emma@north-road.com</a> <br></div>
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