[OpenLayers-Dev] [Fwd: [OpenLayers-PSC] Two proposals: Copyright in Source, Corporate Copyright in Authors]

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 11:58:59AM +1000, Tim Schaub wrote:
> Hey-
> 
> The Project Steering Committee has been discussing some issues with our 
> Contributor License Agreement and code copyright.  While there are 
> associated issues that might follow from this, we are at the point where 
> we'll be voting on proposals to change the copyright statement in the 
> code source and the authors file we maintain.
> 
> The bottom line is that by signing our CLA, contributors do not assign 
> copyright to anyone.  Instead, our CLA is about granting a license to 
> the project maintainer (MetaCarta).  It follows from this that the 
> copyright to OpenLayers is collectively held by the individuals and 
> corporations that signed contributor agreements.
> 
> Thanks to Chris for his careful work deciphering things.  Below are 
> summaries of his two proposals that we will be voting on (full message 
> at the bottom).
> 
> 1. Copyright in Source
> ----------------------
> 
> Change all source files and other copyright statements to read 
> "Copyright OpenLayers Contributors" instead of "Copyright MetaCarta, 
> Inc."  In addition, include the URL for the authors file in the 
> copyright statement.

+1

> 
> 2. Corporations in Authors File
> -------------------------------
> 
> Where we have signed CCLA documents from contributors, include the 
> Corporation name along with the individual's name in the authors.txt file.
> 
> e.g.
> 
> James Bond (Her Majesty's Secret Service)

+1

-- Chris

> 
> Thanks for voting.  And again, thanks to Chris for careful deductive work.
> 
> I'm +1 on both proposals.
> 
> Tim
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [OpenLayers-PSC] Two proposals: Copyright in Source,  Corporate 
> Copyright in Authors
> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:14:28 -0500
> From: Christopher Schmidt <crschmidt at metacarta.com>
> To: psc at openlayers.org
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Two proposals. Please vote on each individually.
> 
> ----
> 
> Currently, the OpenLayers source files say "Copyright MetaCarta, Inc." with
> a date. This is not correct; since we only have a license to code from
> our contributors, and not the actual copyright of it, we should instead
> change this text from:
> 
> /* Copyright (c) 2006-2008 MetaCarta, Inc., published under the Clear BSD
>   * license.  See http://svn.openlayers.org/trunk/openlayers/license.txt 
> for the
>   * full text of the license. */
> 
> to
> 
> /* Copyright (c) 2006-2009 OpenLayers Contributors, published under the 
> Clear
>   * BSD license.  See 
> http://svn.openlayers.org/trunk/openlayers/license.txt for
>   * the full text of the license. */
> 
> I am in favor of this change. (+1)
> 
> ----
> 
> Currently, our doc/authors.txt list does not identify the corporate entities
> associated with contributors during the time which they made contributions
> to OpenLayers. (Essentially, tying a CCLA to a person.) Since the code
> copyright actually belongs in part to these organizations, I recommend that
> we do our best to fix this situation, by doing our best to associate users
> in the d oc/authors.txt with their corporate parents where appropriate.
> 
> For example, this might look like:
> 
> Christopher Schmidt (MetaCarta)
> Tim Schaub (OpenGeo)
> Schuyler Erle (MetaCarta, Entropy Free)
> 
> I am in favor of this change. (+1)
> 
> Best Regards,
> -- 
> Christopher Schmidt
> MetaCarta
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> -- 
> Tim Schaub
> OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
> Expert service straight from the developers.
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-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta