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Add usual IANAL disclaimer here. All of what I say below is just a |
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recall of what I remember from discussions that happened a few years |
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ago. |
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|
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On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:53:10 +0200 |
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Jeroen Roovers <jer@g.o> wrote: |
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|
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> To be exact, by submitting an ebuild, you actively surrender the |
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> copyright to the ebuild to the Gentoo Foundation, formerly Gentoo |
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> Technologies, Inc. [1], the original commit of skel.build (later |
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> skel.ebuild) already made this very clear: |
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|
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Only if the ebuild actually includes our copyright header, and even then |
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is probably questionable in legal terms. |
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|
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> I remember seeing a less subtle statement to this effect (that the |
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> copyright to anything you submit to Gentoo's CVS is passed on to |
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> the Gentoo Project) a long time ago, probably in the devrel/recruiters |
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> documentation during my own recruitment. |
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|
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I think you're talking about the copyright assignment doc, which new |
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devs were required to sign for some time (back when drobbins was still |
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in charge) and send back to drobbins, but which was pulled because of |
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serious flaws. Ever since the copyright assignment issue has been |
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something the foundation/board of trustees should have take care of |
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(one of the reasons we needed the lawyers), with no result so far. |
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|
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> Sadly, currently no document on www.gentoo.org explains the judicial |
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> better than [3], which has this: |
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> |
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> "The bureaucracy we mention includes: |
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> |
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> [...] |
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> |
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> - juridical protection: backing up the licenses Gentoo uses, |
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> maintaining the copyrights on Gentoo's software, documentation |
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> and other assets and protecting Gentoo's intellectual property" |
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> |
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> and also: |
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> |
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> "In other words, the Gentoo Foundation will: |
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> |
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> [...] |
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> |
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> - protect the developed code, documentation, artwork and other |
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> material through copyright and licenses" |
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|
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Which isn't really related, as we can only protect what we own. |
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|
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> Therefore, the copyright to an ebuild is or should be actively and |
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> simply turned over to the Gentoo Foundation by the developer, and this |
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> should be made policy and should be explained properly in a few places |
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> in our documentation. |
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> |
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> Should I file a documentation bug about this? |
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|
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Well, documention won't help to resolve the legal questions about this |
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(what exactly is necessary to assign copyright from a person to the |
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foundation), and that's the main problem IMO. |
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|
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Marius |
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|
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-- |
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Marius Mauch <genone@g.o> |
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-- |
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