[Live-demo] GISVM license and copyright ownership?

[Cameron Shorter]

Ricardo,
At the risk of diving into a deep philosophical discussion,

One of the delicate balances involved in branding and licencing an Open 
Source project is ubalancing between increasing reputation by attracting 
participants, and gaining association through licence, trademark or 
infrastructure ownership.

Both a larger, more successful project, and stronger branding increases 
reputations, and work opportunities for owners. However, contributors 
will sometimes decide not to contribute if they perceive that someone 
else will excessively gain from the contributors hard work.

On one extreme, an owner can do all the work, claim all branding, and 
benefit from all reputation, but will have to bear the cost of all the 
development.

At the other end, lots of people create a great product, but no one 
person can claim the space.

I don't have a magic answer to this, and I'm currently having this same 
discussion with LISAsoft legal and marketing department who want to see 
credit for LISAsoft's current investment in effort.

I think what is likely to work best is to follow the Linux core software 
model, and have all contributors own their own contributions, preferably 
under LGPL, so that the code can roll back into contributing projects if 
needed.

Ricardo Pinho wrote:
> Cameron,
>
>   
>> I note
>>     
> your registration of the GISVM trademark. I'm not sure what the 
>   
>> implications of this is. Do we need to change directory names or
>>     
> something?
>
> Please use GISVM name as much as you like!
> In my understanding:
> if you use it, just make sure you note about it being a registered trade mark
> of Ricardo Pinho, everytime you mention copyright terms, like Copyright OSGeo… I
> think that’s fair enought… ;-)
>
> RP
>
>
> ----- Mensagem original ----
> De: Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
> Para: Ricardo Pinho <rpinho_eng at yahoo.com.br>
> Cc: "live-demo at lists.osgeo.org" <live-demo at lists.osgeo.org>
> Enviadas: Quinta-feira, 27 de Agosto de 2009 12:44:12
> Assunto: Re: [Live-demo] GISVM license and copyright ownership?
>
> The reason for using a less restrictive license than GPL is so that the 
> scripts can be incorporated back into the build process of a less 
> restrictive licenced project.
>
> Ie, as it stands, if UDig (which is LGPL), wanted to incorporate the 
> install_udig.sh script into UDig's code base, then it could potentially 
> have to convert all its code to GPL. I might be missing some fine legal 
> points, but the general gist is right.
>
> Hence my proposal to go with the less restrictive LGPL.
>
> Regarding licence ownership, we can go for joint ownership - "everyone 
> owns the code they contribute", if you like.
>
> I note your registration of the GISVM trademark. I'm not sure what the 
> implications of this is. Do we need to change directory names or something?
>
> Ricardo Pinho wrote:
>   
>> Cameron,
>>
>> Just would like to remember all, that:
>>
>> 1. GISVM (name) is a personal registered trademark of mine.
>> 2. GISVM has been, from the beginning, licensed has GPL (GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3)
>>
>>
>> I would like to know why to use LGPL instead of GPL on scripts? (Don't have nothing against it...)
>> Is that for guarantee that third party can make commercial products and services out of those scripts?
>>
>> But I am only trying to clarify on this subject (I'm not an expert...) 
>>
>> Best,
>> Ricardo Pinho
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Mensagem original ----
>> De: Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>> Para: "live-demo at lists.osgeo.org" <live-demo at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Enviadas: Quarta-feira, 26 de Agosto de 2009 21:41:01
>> Assunto: [Live-demo] GISVM license and copyright ownership?
>>
>> I propose that we license the build scripts associated with GISVM as LGPL, with copyright assigned to the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.
>>
>> I don't feel strongly either way regarding license, so if someone has a alternative suggestion, please speak up.
>> I want to have this resolved by Friday (tomorrow) so that we have a license in place when I send out a press release asking for participation in creating install scripts.
>>
>> -- Cameron Shorter
>> Geospatial Systems Architect
>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>
>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Live-demo mailing list
>> Live-demo at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/live-demo
>>
>>
>>
>>       ____________________________________________________________________________________
>> Veja quais são os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados
>> http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com
>>  
>>     
>
>
>   


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

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com