[OSGeo-Discuss] copyright question

[Frank Warmerdam]

P Kishor wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Bart van den Eijnden (OSGIS)
> <bartvde at osgis.nl> wrote:
>> Hi list,
>>
>> today I was in a meeting about GeoExt, and the following question came up:
>>
>> "Is it possible for OsGeo to take copyright for a project which yet has to
>> form and has not passed incubation as such?"
> 
> Just looking at the above question, the answer would be "no" in the
> US. In the US, per  Title 17, Section 102, "original works of
> authorship" have to be "fixed in any tangible medium of expression"
> before they can acquire copyright protection. Since the said project
> hasn't yet been formed, it can't be protected.

Puneet,

It appears to be a common practice to write copyright assignments and
contributor agreements in such a way that they apply to new contributions
as they are created.  Of course for this to work well it is necessary to
be reasonably clear about what is being contributed.  So regardless of
the text of title 17, section 102, reputable "intellectual property"
lawyers have not shown any hesitation to draft agreements related to
future creations.

Best regards,
-- 
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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    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent