[Incubator] labs project assigning copyright

[Cameron Shorter]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Cameron Shorter wrote:
>   
>>>  o Projects wishing to assign copyright to the foundation should seek the
>>>    agreement of the current OSGeo Secretary (currently Tyler), who if 
>>> they
>>>    are doubtful could seek input from the board.  For project in 
>>> incubation
>>>    or full OSGeo projects it should be automatic.
>>>       
>  >
>   
>> I think we need to include some guidelines on what projects OSGeo will 
>> accept. Basically, projects can assign copyright to OSGeo if they plan 
>> to eventually become OSGeo projects and conforming to the OSGeo 
>> guidelines set out under OSGeo Labs.
>>     
>
> Cameron,
>
> Why do you think such guidelines are needed?  Who would interprete them?
> It seems like the "cost" of collecting contribution agreements is very
> small and there is relatively little downside to accepting them on
> behalf of a project in which the foundation might have little interest.
>
> If I were to propose guidelines it would be that this only be done
> for projects with a geospatial connection and under an open source
> license.
>   
The above sentence may be sufficient guidelines. Ie, Open Source + 
Geospatial.
I was thinking + working on becoming an OSGeo project (ie listing in 
OSGeo labs) would be slightly better, but I don't feel strongly about it.
>   
>> I think that OSGeo labs should come under the responsibility of the 
>> Incubation Committee, but am happy to bend on that point.
>>     
>
> I'm agreeable, but not so certain that accepting contribution
> agreements or copyright assignment needs to be related to OSGeo Labs.
>
>   
>>>  o Agreements should all be stored in scanned format in the OSGeo SVN.
>>>    We can give out SVN commit access to one or two representatives of 
>>> each
>>>    project so they can actually add the agreements themselves after some
>>>    vetting.
>>>       
>> I don't think we need to be prescriptive about where agreements are 
>> stored, so long as they are stored somewhere. It may be on OSGeo svn, or 
>> the project svn, or a wiki or similar.
>>     
>
> As legal documents of the foundation, the Secretary is responsible for
> keeping them available and under his/her administration.  I am suggesting
> we control their location in part to ensure that the Secretary will be
> aware of their storage, and so there are relatively few places that we
> need to be sure of capturing to have the foundations legal documents.
>
> In fact, I hope to also encourage scanning and storing in this fashion of
> other foundation documents that are not confidential.
>
> Best regards,
>   


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

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