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Dear Matthew, |
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I would like to reiterate our request with a slightly modified version. |
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On Sun, Apr 8, 2018, at 15:27 CDT, Matthew Thode <prometheanfire@g.o> wrote: |
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> ======= |
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> If you have any additions you wish to make, please submit it to the |
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> gentoo-nfp list at least 48 hours before the meeting is to take place. |
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We request the Board of Trustees to make the following motion part of |
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their next meeting agenda, we will ask for a formal vote by council at |
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the next council meeting: |
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We request that the Board of Trustees of the Gentoo Foundation and the |
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Gentoo Council affirm Gentoo's metastructure GLEP 39 as the governing |
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principle of the Gentoo Linux developer community. In particular, both |
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acknowledge the intended (non-exclusive) split between |
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- the Gentoo Developer community, currently lead by the Gentoo Council, |
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which is responsible for the developer community, its user base and |
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all technical development decisions, |
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- and the Gentoo Foundation, whose role is to hold Gentoo's assets |
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(such as trademarks and server infrastructure) and support the |
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developer and user community. Although the Board of Trustees |
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exercises its own independent judgment on every decision, it |
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generally carries out requests from the community. |
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Rationale: |
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(a) We merely want to reaffirm the current status quo, that is |
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specifically: |
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* GLEP 39: https://www.gentoo.org/glep/glep-0039.html |
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* https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/ |
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"" |
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In order to sustain the current quality and development swiftness the |
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Gentoo project needs a framework for intellectual property protection |
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and financial contributions while limiting the contributors’ legal |
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exposure. The Gentoo Foundation will embody this framework without |
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intervening in the Gentoo development. This latter aspect should be |
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seen as a clear separation between coordinating the Gentoo development |
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and protecting Gentoo’s assets. Both are distinct concepts requiring |
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different skills and working methods. |
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"" |
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(b) This separation has worked well for many open source projects, |
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exemplarily we mention |
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* https://www.spi-inc.org/ |
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* https://www.debian.org/devel/constitution#item-9 |
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"" |
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An organisation holding assets for Debian has no authority regarding |
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Debian's technical or nontechnical decisions, except that no decision |
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by Debian with respect to any property held by the organisation shall |
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require it to act outside its legal authority. |
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"" |
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(c) It is legally not possible for quite a number of Gentoo developers |
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to have an office status or board member status in the Gentoo |
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Foundation. This is because quite a number of employers in academia |
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and industry view this as a conflict of interest. |
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Best, |
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Matthias and Andreas |
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