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To whom it may concern: |
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I have been informed that you have received our request for possible |
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legal consultation regarding our copyright assignment form. The current |
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copyright assignment form can be found at |
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http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/copyright/assignment.txt |
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|
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The Gentoo Trustees have identified the following points of concern: |
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|
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* It claims ownership of developer hard drives "...or computer media |
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relating to the Work.") |
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|
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* It is completely unenforceable for any user (non-dev) that submits |
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something to bugzilla and/or submissions@g.o. (we're not |
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requiring them to sign this doc, so it's not enforceable) |
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|
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* Because we allow the storage things like kernel patches, etc. for |
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which we do not own the copyright, in CVS (in the files/ directories), |
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it shows that we're selectively enforcing the copyright assignment. In |
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the past, this has often resulted in the entire document being tossed in |
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court. |
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|
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* It is questionable whether or not we have any legal right to enforce |
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copyright claims for non-US devs. They're not US citizens, so it's not |
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clear if they're subject to US copyright restrictions/assignments. |
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|
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Please keep in mind that the above list may not be comprehensive. |
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|
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Thank you in advance for your time, and if there is anything that you |
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need, please do not hesitate to contact me. |
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|
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Regards, |
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//John Davis |
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|
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Gentoo Foundation Trustee |
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-- |
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John Davis |
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Gentoo Linux Developer |
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<http://dev.gentoo.org/~zhen> |
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|
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---- |
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GnuPG Public Key: <http://dev.gentoo.org/~zhen/zhen_pub.asc> |
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Fingerprint: 4F9E 41F6 D072 5C1A 636C 2D46 B92C 4823 E281 41BB |
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