[OSGeo-Board] Legal contact

[Gary Lang]

I think you or Frank should do this. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tyler Mitchell (External) 
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 3:05 PM
To: OSGeo-Board
Subject: [OSGeo-Board] Legal contact

Hi all,
I had a good talk with Porter Merriman a few days ago and one issue came
up regarding contacting her, and others, that have been provided to us
through Autodesk.  As OSGeo moves forward, especially when we retain our
own particular contact in the future, it will be paramount to have a
gatekeeper for communicating to our legal rep.  It takes substantial
time and money to get advice and if (hypothetically
speaking) everyone on this list contacted counsel independently, we
would wear out our welcome or cost OSGeo substantially.  Also, I know we
all have our own particular legal questions that might be of interest to
us or our projects, but may not be seen as priorities for the
organisation (i.e. blessed by the board).  It can be a fine line, but
doesn't necessarily have to be if we nail down a process.

I don't mind helping funnel requests but I don't know how/why/when I'd
assess what are valid requests or not.  I'd like to put this back to the
board to provide guidance on.  Perhaps the board itself can agree to
discuss any legal-related questions first and then agree, together, to
send the question for more advice.  If you want me to help guard the
gate, then I would redirect anything not already discussed by the board,
back to the board for consideration.  But if it's been discussed then I
could help pass on to Porter and others as appropriate.

Any thoughts on this?

Tyler

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