[Incubator] Board Proposal 2: All incubation projects to have legal review of docs

[Cameron Shorter]

OSGeo Board, CC to Incubator list,

Second action for me out of last incom meeting.

Proposal:
1. That all OSGeo projects are to go through legal review of key documents.
2. That OSGeo provide the legal resources for the review.

Documents to be reviewed:
*Software License*
  * Should be an OSI approved license possibly with slight 
modifications. Eg Openlayers have created a Clear BSD license, which 
slightly modifies the BSD license to protect Metacarta patents.

*Copyrite Assignment*
  * Some projects ask developers to assign copyrite to an organisation. 
Eg: http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/OpenLayers_Provenance_Review#ICLA.2FCCLA

* Provenance Review* which lists review of code for license conformance 
and lists any exceptions.
  * Template at: http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Code_Provenance_Review
  * Example at: 
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Community_Mapbuilder_Provenance_Review

For most projects, I expect the above review to be less than a days 
work, hopefully only an hour or two. For projects like Geotools testing 
new OSGeo licenses, review would be longer. I guess weeks, possibly months.

Background:
While projects are using standard OSI approved licenses, there is still 
room to use them incorrectly. For instance, while on the geotools 
project, I was involved in assigning the Geotools license to a non-legal 
entity, the Project Management Committee. A review of the above 
documents should provide confidence that a lawyer can defend the project 
should a law suite be targeted at OSGeo in the future.


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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