I think that before we do anything to the copyright assignment, we need to 1, have current copyrights transfered over to us and that will take a bit of time, and 2, we need to have a lawyer look at our current copyright doc. When a lawyer looks at the current copyright doc, I think then we can ask him/her about copyrights outside the us, and if they're enforceable.

As for the changes in the cvs tree, I really think that we should have waited on those till we had the copyrights transfered to us. I think that change was made a bit quickly, especially since we don't  own the copyrights yet:p


On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, Kurt Lieber wrote:

> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:13:16 +0000
> From: Kurt Lieber <klieber@g.o>
> Reply-To: gentoo-trustees@g.o
> To: gentoo-trustees@g.o
> Cc: gentoo-core@g.o
> Subject: [gentoo-trustees] copyright assignment doc
> 
> I've mentioned this before but didn't receive much response, so I'll
> mention it again.
> 
> Our copyright assignment doc needs to change.  Specific problems with it:
> 
> * It claims ownership of developer hard drives "...or computer media
>   relating to the Work.") 
> * It says "Gentoo Technologies" instead of "Gentoo Foundation" 
> * It is completely unenforceable for any user (non-dev) that submits
>   something to bugzilla and/or submissions@g.o.  (we're not
>   requiring them to sign this doc, so it's not enforceable)
> * Because we allow the storage things like kernel patches, etc. for which
>   we do not own the copyright, in CVS (in the files/ directories), it shows
>   that we're selectively enforcing the copyright assignment.  In the past,
>   this has often resulted in the entire document being tossed in court.
> * It is questionable whether or not we have any legal right to enforce
>   copyright claims for non-US devs.  They're not US citizens, so it's not
>   clear if they're subject to US copyright restrictions/assignments.
> * We selectively enforce who must sign it.
> * [minor] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/copyright/index.xml needs to
>   be updated to remove Daniel from the text.
> 
> There are a number of ways to solve this.  One set of suggestions:
> 
> * Eliminate the "...or computer media" clause.
> * s/Gentoo Technologies/Gentoo Foundation/g
> * Not sure, but it's something we need to resolve.
> * Some how find a way to allow storage of files/ files in CVS for which we
>   cannot legally claim copyright on.  I'm open to suggestions on how to
>   best do this.
> * Seek legal counsel on the merit of this document wrt non-US-based devs.
> * Either have *everyone* sign it or *no one* sign it.
> * [minor] fix the copyright FAQ page.
> 
> Until we change this doc, I would like to stop having new devs sign it.  It
> is causing a number of problems, confusion and general unhappiness on
> #gentoo-dev.  I don't think it provides a net benefit to Gentoo as it reads
> now, (for the reasons outlined above) so I don't see the reason for
> requiring it.
> 
> Thoughts, opinions, flames, etc.
> 
> --kurt
> 
> 

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