[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Liability protection project - call for participants

[Sean Gillies]

Yes. Thanks, Frank. I love the idea of Eben Moglen defending my software.

Sean


Allan Doyle wrote:
> Thanks for bringing this to our attention, it's a topic that has renewed 
> relevance.
> 
>  From the sound of it, OSGeo itself has too many eggs in its basket to 
> risk having them broken by providing a shield. But that ought not stop 
> geo-foss developers from either joining up with Bruce's idea or from 
> setting up a geo-clone of that idea.
> 
> Ideally, the legal issues would only have to be worked out once, and 
> everyone who wanted could join the "shield". There's nothing inherently 
> different about geo in this case, is there?
> 
>     Allan
> 
> On May 14, 2007, at 23:32, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> 
>>
>> Folks,
>>
>> Bruce Perens is a luminary in the open source world, and known as a
>> founder of the Debian project, and author of the Free Software
>> Definition - a foundational document for the concept of OSI approved
>> open source licenses.
>>
>> Bruce Perens wrote:
>> > A long time ago we planned for SPI to protect Debian developers from
>> > liability connected with their development of Free Software. That never
>> > came to fruition. With the sword-rattling going on by various patent
>> > holders, it's  a goal even more worth carrying out today.
>> >
>> > Some of us have homes, and other property that we would rather not 
>> place
>> > at risk of any lawsuit connected with our Free Software activities. The
>> > way to do that is to act as a volunteer on the behalf of a non-profit
>> > corporation, with the corporation assuming your liability. It is
>> > possible to insure you against those risks, but it's much more 
>> expensive
>> > - potentially 1.5 to 2.5 percent of your net worth per year per member.
>> > It's better to put the risk in the lap of an entity that doesn't own
>> > anything. We can potentially do it at zero cost to the member that way.
>> >
>> > There is a downside. If you work on behalf of such an entity, you would
>> > have to agree to act at their direction, which means acting responsbily
>> > on their behalf, by not doing stupid stuff that obviously increases the
>> > corporation's risk of being sued. This doesn't really have to do with
>> > practical software, but with what some consider freedom-of-speech 
>> issues
>> > like obscentity or hate speech. For that reason, this would be strictly
>> > opt-in. It would not be directly associated with SPI or Debian, because
>> > we could never get all of the DDs to agree about this, and because SPI
>> > owns property that we do not want to expose to liability. Copyrights of
>> > software produced would be assigned to a non-profit like FSF or SPI*
>> >
>> > I am asking for current free software authors in the United States who
>> > would be interested in being protected from liability, and would 
>> join me
>> > in a request to the Software Freedom Law Center to assist us by 
>> creating
>> > such an entity. If you would like to do that, please reply to me at
>> > bruce at perens.com . Further discussion will be carried out separately
>> > from SPI and Debian lists.
>> >
>> >    Thanks
>> >
>> >    Bruce
>> >
>> > * There should also be limits on how much software a single non-profit
>> > has in its "risk pool", this is a good question for SFLC.
>>
>> At the time it was founded, OSGeo also had a goal to provide legal
>> resources, and perhaps assume legal liability for developers of OSGeo
>> project.  This is not a role that OSGeo has worked to address since
>> founding, and it is unclear how much liability it would be willing to
>> assume.
>>
>> I've asked Bruce for more information on his efforts, either with an
>> eye towards OSGeo fulfilling this role of legal liability shield for
>> developers, or possibly with the idea of addressing this via some
>> separate entity such as the one he envisages establishing.
>>
>> I'm interested in others thoughts on the importance of the role of
>> "legal liability shield".  Such thoughts would be well expressed
>> here on OSGeo discuss.
>>
>> Bruce is also interested in other open source software developers
>> expressing interest in his effort to help justify forming a corporation.
>> You can contact him as noted above.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> -----------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- 
>>
>> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, 
>> warmerdam at pobox.com
>> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
>> and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, 
>> http://osgeo.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 
> --Allan Doyle
> +1.781.433.2695
> adoyle at eogeo.org
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 


-- 
Sean Gillies
http://zcologia.com/news