[SeasonOfDocs] TheGoodDocsProject: Finding a legal entity to assign license ownership to

[Cameron Shorter]

Erin, there is a subtle but important concept of ownership of IP which 
should be discussed with supporting organisations.

Either each person owns their own contribution, or each person gives 
their ownership rights to a legal entity such as Apache. (This means 
Apache can then re-assign copyright if needed.)

This is the question to put to the lawyers.

Cheers, Cameron

On 17/7/19 6:44 am, Erin McKean wrote:
> If all contributions are licensed under CC-BY or CC-0 or 0BSD then 
> there's no remaining copyright issues afaik (since the relevant rights 
> have been released under the license)? (Obligatory IANAL here)
>
> I will ask, but probably won't be able to until I'm back from OSCON ...
>
> Thanks!
>
> Erin
>
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 1:22 PM Eric Holscher <eric at writethedocs.org 
> <mailto:eric at writethedocs.org>> wrote:
>
>     Makes sense. In my experience, companies are more worried about
>     the license of the content than the copyright (most OSS in general
>     is owned by private individuals or other corporations). WTD
>     doesn't own any source code historically of value that we'd want
>     to relicense, so copyright ownership hasn't been something we've
>     been worried about.
>
>     Cheers,
>     Eric
>
>     On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 1:03 PM Cameron Shorter
>     <cameron.shorter at gmail.com <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         Thanks Eric for the info,
>
>         It is a pity WriteTheDocs isn't a non-profit, but I understand
>         the challenges with setting up a not-for-profit - the OSGeo
>         Foundation went through a lot of heartache going through the
>         process.
>
>         While it would be great if were legally under the umbrella of
>         WriteTheDocs, I suspect that being under the umbrella of a
>         not-for-profit entity will be important for potential
>         contributors from big companies.
>
>         I'm open to suggestions on who we should reach out to here.
>
>         Cheers, Cameron
>
>         On 17/7/19 3:32 am, Eric Holscher wrote:
>>         WTD info is documented here:
>>         http://www.writethedocs.org/about-us/#legal-entity -- so, if
>>         you're looking for a non-profit organization, we're not one
>>         at the moment. It might be in the cards eventually, but it
>>         likely doesn't make sense for us currently.
>>
>>         We don't do any copyright assignment, so each person owns
>>         their own contributions on our site.
>>
>>         Cheers,
>>         Eric
>>
>>         On Sat, Jul 13, 2019 at 6:54 PM Cameron Shorter
>>         <cameron.shorter at gmail.com
>>         <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>             Folks,
>>             We should consider which legal entity will own the
>>             material we create.
>>             People or a legal entity will own artifacts we create and
>>             others can use the artifact under the terms of the license.
>>
>>             As I understand it, our options are:
>>             * Every contributor owns their personal contribution.
>>             This makes it very difficult to relicense a collective
>>             work in future, which has pros and cons.
>>             * More common is to assign ownership to a trustworthy
>>             non-profit foundation, (such as the Apache Foundation,
>>             Open Source Foundation, or Open Source Geospatial
>>             Foundation).
>>
>>             I'm in favour of selecting a suitable foundation to
>>             assign our copyright to and would like to hear
>>             suggestions. I suspect the legal structure behind
>>             WriteTheDocs would be good.
>>
>>             Eric, Jennifer, do you know the legal status of
>>             WriteTheDocs? Or are you able to put us in touch with
>>             someone who knows?
>>
>>             -- 
>>             Cameron Shorter
>>             Technology Demystifier
>>             Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>
>>             M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>         -- 
>>         Co-founder Write the Docs
>>         http://www.writethedocs.org
>
>         -- 
>         Cameron Shorter
>         Technology Demystifier
>         Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>
>         M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     Co-founder Write the Docs
>     http://www.writethedocs.org
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Erin McKean | Developer Relations Program Manager, Open Source 
> Strategy |emckean at google.com <mailto:emckean at google.com> | she/her
>
-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254

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