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

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 09:05:55AM +0100, Andreas Hocevar wrote:
> Thanks Chris for bringing this up.
> 
> For now, I am
> 
> +1 on both proposals.
> 
> Also important for me at a later time (but as soon as possible):
> 
> +1 on collecting new contributor agreements to assign copyright to 
> OSGeo, for the reasons pointed out by Roald,

The primary reason that Roald pointed out was "the OL PSC can't change
the license"; that doesn't change if OSGeo holds the copyright. (OSGeo
still has to; the mechanism through which that would be affected is not
entirely clear to me.) Additionally, I'd be interested in seeing if we
can just pass the maintainership role MC currently has on to OSGeo, rather
than having to get all new agreements (since the Maintainership role lets
us change the license, and I can't think of anything else that copyright
assignment lets us do that we care about).

> and, for the sake of organisations who do not contribute back because of 
> concerns with the current license,
> 
> either:
> +1 on new contributor agreements granting license to OSGeo to sublicense 
> OpenLayers as they please

I am in favor of this; I hope I can get something put together on this
this week.

> or:
> +1 on the PSC advising MetaCarta to distribute OpenLayers with a license 
> that meets the requirements of organisations that do not contribute back 
> because of concerns with the current license

I'm not aware of any of these; is anyone else? All the issues I've heard
have been based on one of a couple things:

 1. "We have to assign copyright to MetaCarta." Not true, though a common
    misconception, even among the PSC; clarified by these actions, I believe.

 2. A vague feeling of distrust for MetaCarta's role; hopefully resolved by
    this change, and the one that you mentioned directly above, which removes 
    MetaCarta's maintainership role with regard to new contributions. 

Best Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta