[OSGeo-Edu] Re: Review of copyright.html page

[Simon Cropper]

Cameron,

Here are my comments on the text on the page you provided a link to...
http://adhoc.osgeo.osuosl.org/livedvd/docs/en/copyright.html

> OSGeo-Live Copyright¶

> OSGeo-Live is composed entirely of free software, free data and free
> documentation, allowing it to be freely distributed, duplicated and
> passed around.

> Project Overviews and Overview Translations, are provided under a
> Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

> Quickstarts and Quickstart Translations, are provided under a
> Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

> Documentation may also be available under other licenses, as listed
> below.

> Software on OSGeo-Live is available under various Open Source
> licenses, as described on project websites, and copied into the
> Project Overviews.

It is unclear what you are trying to say here. Is the software copied 
into the project overview? I think you mean that content available on 
the various project websites have been used in the preparation of the 
Project Overviews (presumably the source documents are appropriately 
licensed for this to occur or permission has been obtained from the 
original authors as described is the post 
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/live-demo/2011-July/003766.html)

> Data on OSGeo-Live is available under various Open Licences.
> Attributing OSGeo-Live Documentation¶

Strictly speaking this is not related to copyright. maybe you should 
call this webpage 'legal issues' and break the content up into (a) 
software, (b) data, (c) documentation.

> As per the terms of the Creative Commons license, if you include
> OSGeo-Live documentation into a new document, you will need to
> attribute the authors using text similar to:

> This document includes [Project Overviews and/or Quickstarts] from
> the OSGeo-Live project which is created by OSGeo-Live authors, as
> listed under Documentation Authors.

I would prefer...
This document includes [extent: all/part] of the [Project Overview 
and/or Quickstart] titled "[document title]" created by [author] and 
released under the [licence: CC-BY/CC-BY-SA] licence [URL to Legal 
Code]. The source document forms part of the "[document series]", 
available from [url] and downloaded on [download date].

When part of the document is used, an additional statement must be 
include similar to...
1. The original work has been modified [describe how work has
    been changed], or
2. The original work was translated from English to [language]

So, as an example...
This document includes all of the Quickstart titled "gvSIG Quickstart" 
created by Simon Cropper and released under the Creative Commons 
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence 
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode). The source 
document forms part of the "OSGeo-Live Project, version 5.0", available 
from 
http://adhoc.osgeo.osuosl.org/livedvd/docs/en/quickstart/gvsig_quickstart.html 
and downloaded on 25 July 2011. The original work was translated from 
English to Deutch.

> Note: If Quickstarts are included, which are licenced under the `CC
> By-SA <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>`_ license,
> then the new document will also need to be licenced under the
>  `CC By-SA <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>`_.

Note that the RST markup has not been converted to HTML.

> Documentation Authors¶

> The table below credits the creators for each of the documents on
> OSGeo-Live .

> TBD: Insert a table which includes:

> Document, License(s), List of Authors and/or owners

Here we differ again in the interpretation of the legal code. I 
personally think that the names of an author should be displayed at the 
top of every document they create, with the appropriate license clearly 
shown.

For example, at the top of the "gvSIG Quickstart", I would expect to see 
immediately after the title...

Content and Screen Dumps on this page created by (c) Simon Cropper 2011, 
Creative Commons - Attribution - ShareAlike with URL to the appropriate 
license deed.

At the bottom of the page, I would expect to see something like...

OSGeo Live Project website, logos and associated images not attributed 
to particular authors were created by the LiveDVD Team and are released 
under the license CC-BY [URL] licence. (c) OSGeo Foundation and LISASoft 
2011 [URL to copyright page].

> Disclaimer¶

> The contents of OSGeo-Live are provided by the copyright holders and
> contributors “as is” and any express or implied warranties,
> including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of the
> merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed.
> In no event shall the copyright owner or contributors be liable for
> any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or
> consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of
> substitute goods or services; loss of use, date, or profits; or
> business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability,
> whether in contract, strict liablity, or tort (including negligence
> or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software,
> even if advised of the possibility of such damage.

This is redundant as it is clearly expressed in Clause 5 & 6 of the 
CC-BY and CC-BY-SA licenses.

You should avoid creating multiple versions of these disclaimers as they 
can readily become out of sync.

If you want something, maybe text like...

As defined in the Clause 5 & 6 of the legal code of the CC-BY and 
CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported licences the following representations, 
warranties, disclaimer and limitation on liability apply. If there are 
any discrepancies between this page and the original legal code, the 
legal code takes precedence.

5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

UNLESS OTHERWISE MUTUALLY AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR 
OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY 
KIND CONCERNING THE WORK, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, 
INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, 
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF 
LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, 
WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE 
EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

6. Limitation on Liability.
EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL 
LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, 
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF 
THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED 
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

-- 
Cheers Simon

    Simon Cropper
    Principal Consultant
    Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
    PO Box 160, Sunshine, VIC
    W: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au