[QGIS-Developer] iOS prototyping

[Greg Troxel]

Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it> writes:

> thanks for this discussion. I'm also pretty sure getting a property
> transfer from all developers will be difficult if not impossible (quite
> a few devs even disappeared from the radar, not easy to find them again).
>
> A possible intermediate step would be to:
>
> * get the transfer of code property to QGIS.ORG only from those
> developers who are happy to do it

That makes sense, but wrapped up in that question is:

  what is the reciprocal covenant about future licensing that goes with
  the copyright assignment?

or perhaps you really mean "assignment with no reciprocal covenant at
all, from those who are happy to do it".

The FSF assignment form that my company executed long ago (for
contributions to GNU Radio) had a covenant to make the code available
under Free licenses (and I can't remember the exact details), plus a
grant back to the contributor of a license under copyright law.

This text is old, but is an example

  The Foundation promises that all distribution of the Work, or of any
  work "based on the Work," that takes place under the control of the
  Foundation or its assignees, shall be on terms that explicitly and
  perpetually permit anyone possessing a copy of the work to which the
  terms apply, and possessing accurate notice of these terms, to
  redistribute copies of the work to anyone on the same terms. These
  terms shall not restrict which members of the public copies may be
  distributed to. These terms shall not require a member of the public
  to pay any royalty to the Foundation or to anyone else for any
  permitted use of the work they apply to, or to communicate with the
  Foundation or its agents in any way either when redistribution is
  performed or on any other occasion.

> * ask a more specific question to others (e.g. are you willing to move
> from GPL2 to GPL3?).
>
> I think this is more feasible, will help building trust, will help
> moving forward, and will make it easier (less people to contact) to do
> further changes in the future.