[Incubator] Motion for FDO to graduate incubation

[Arnulf Christl]

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> IncCom,
> 
> As FDO incubation mentor I believe the project has met all the 
> incubation requirements and I am happy to raise the following motion:
> 
>   I move that the Incubation Committee recommend FDO to the OSGeo board
>   for graduation from incubation with Greg Boone as project liason
>   to the board.
> 
> Please review the project incubation status and vote within the next 
> week so that we the motion (if it passes) can make next board meeting 
> which is expected for either Feb 1st or 8th.
> 
> I start with my +1 vote.
> 
> More info on FDO's incubation status:
> 
> 1- The FDO Incubation Status page is at the following URL and is up to 
> date:
>    http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FDO_Incubation_Status
> 
> 2- FDO as established a PSC which has been operating smoothly since the 
> fall using the following PSC guidelines:
>    http://fdo.osgeo.org/psc.html

Hello,
just to show that I really read the documents... :-)

There is a minor typo in:
"PSC members voting "+1" for a change request are expected to to stay engaged and ensure the..."

Just for the records - I am interested in how the initial PSC came into being. Maybe it is just the old hen and egg question. 

Another minor typo in:
http://fdo.osgeo.org/files/Individual%20Contributor%20Agreement%20-%20FDO.pdf

"You accept and agree to the following terms and conditions for Your present and future Contributions submitted to the Foundation fro use with the FDO Project."

It would be informative to see where PSC members are employed / self employed. 

> 3- More developer/contributor info is available here:
>    http://fdo.osgeo.org/developer.html

> 4- The Source code provenance review is at:
>    http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FDO_Provenance_Review
> 
>    I did several spot checks and everything seems fine.
> 
> 5- FDO has a contributor agreement but it has not been signed by all 
> contributors yet. However a note has been sent by Greg Boone, the PSC 
> chair, to the fdo-internal list stating that committers who do not 
> submit a contributor agreement by the graduation date will have their 
> commit rights suspended until they complete the form, so I believe that 
> addresses the issue and is not a blocker for graduation.

It says that a new CLA has been put into place:
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/fdo-internals/2008-January/001651.html

I should probably know - but could you point out what the changes to the one were that we have agreed on? In the end this is a document from the Foundation so we should know. (Maybe I missed that part but if I did then we can be sure that others will have missed it too).

I don't want to start yet another round of painful lawyers talk but. Those really long sentences are not exactly intelligible without a large magnifying glass. As this will probably be the last chance to really have a look at them, could you please translate the following section to standard English. 

"Grant of Patent License." 
[...]
"If any entity (a “Litigant”) institutes patent litigation against You or any other entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that your Contribution, or the Work to which you have contributed, constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to that Litigant under this Agreement for that Contribution or Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed."

Does this effectively mean that anybody litigating the Foundation or contributor automatically loses the royalty free, free of charge patent license that they received by using the software? Then this is probably just a formal retribution that is required to fend off litigant's claims on that software. Please correct me if I got this completely wrong.

Thanks, 
Arnulf. 

> That's it!
> 
> Daniel