[Board] The geotools license agenda item

[Martin Desruisseaux]

Le 09/08/12 22:58, Jody Garnett a écrit :
> I am afraid the very next line in section "V. Obligations of the 
> Foundation" specially covers changing license as a board 
> responsibility, made in conjunction with the group governing the 
> project. There are a couple of restrictions, open source license, in 
> accordance with the bylaws of the Foundation etc…

That paragraph specifies the conditions under which the Foundation can 
re-license; I don't read it as the contributor's conditions. Indeed, the 
section title is "Obligations of the Foundation".

Adrian, who wrote the Copyright Assignment, confirmed us that the intend 
was to give unrestricted rights to the contributor, including re-licensing:

http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/www-legal-discuss/201207.mbox/%3C9E3968A8-C23C-4E99-B3EF-9F1979D1BDF9%40jpl.nasa.gov%3E

Adrian wrote the Copyright Assignment together with a Lawyer. In 
addition, we signed the agreement (while we had no obligation to do so) 
in the understanding that the contributor rights while be equivalent to 
those who signed the Contributor Agreement instead than the Copyright 
Assignment.

By signing the Copyright Assignment, we granted additional flexibility 
that other projects don't have. For example the GeoTools PMC doesn't 
need to ask us for re-licensing GeoTools. It was truly done in good 
faith. Does OSGeo really want to "reward" such willing by revoking some 
contributor rights compared to the agreement that other projects use?

Martin