[OSGeo-Discuss] Software Copyright ownership

[Frank Warmerdam]

Ravi wrote:
> While discussing this with Free Software Foundation of India, this topic
> came up, and I could not explain them the position of software under
> incubation by OSGeo. May I have a pointer or thread where the status of
> software under incubation is dealt, indicating, 
 > 1. Copy-Left
 > 2. Type of licensing, GNU-GPL, BSD etc

Ravi,

I wasn't able to find a specific incubation document that addresses, it,
but it is required that projects release their code under an open source
license - in particular one approved (or clearly essentially identical to)
by OSI (http://www.opensource.org).  That means that GPL, LGPL, BSD, and
quite a number of other open source licenses are considered acceptable.

We also do a code provenance review to try and ensure that the existing
code base of the project is properly contributed. This is described at:

   http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/codereview.html

Current policy is that projects may choose to leave copyright with the
original contributors, some outside body or OSGeo.

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