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

[Jo Cook]

Hi Cameron,

If WriteTheDocs is not an option, is it worth considering setting up a Not
For Profit ourselves? We could leverage the experience that OSGeo gained in
doing it (and to a certain extent the experience the OSGeo UK local chapter
have been through trying to set ourselves up as a charity, and failing).

Jo

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 9:55 PM Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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>
> 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> 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> 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 | she/her
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Technology Demystifier
> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>
> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>
> _______________________________________________
> SeasonOfDocs mailing list
> SeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>


-- 
------------------------
http://about.me/jocook
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