Re: [tdf-discuss] [FAQ] new entries (here: CA/JCA/SCA)

On 10/02/2010 07:01 PM, Dr. Bernhard Dippold wrote:
> Q: What are copyright agreements (CA/JCA/SCA) with Oracle and why are t
hey counterproductive to OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice and FOSS?
> A: Every contributor to OpenOffice.org code has to sign a contract abou
t sharing the contribution's copyright with Oracle.

As this agreement can't be retracted it covers all future contributions
too. This allows Oracle to behave as the copyright owner, claiming
copyright infringement and other legal rights.
> On the other hand this agreement allows them to release the contributio
n under any license they want to,

including proprietary ones, without the contributor having any right to
refuse it.

That answer makes it seem that Oracle can claim copyright over
everything that a contributor creates. I haven't read the most recent
version of the CA/JCA/SCA. When I did sign it, it was not quite that far
reaching.

Rewriting the answer:

Contributors to the OpenOffice.org project have had to sign a contract
that assigns all intellectual property rights of their contributions to
Sun, and subsequently Oracle. One point in this contract enabled Sun,
and subsequently Oracle to convert that contribution into a closed
source, all rights reserved product. This conversion goes against both
the spirit, and the intent of Free Libre Open Source Software.


jonathon
--
No human will see non-list, non-bulk, non-junk email sent to this
address. It all gets forwarded to /dev/null



--
To unsubscribe, send an empty e-mail to discuss+unsubscribe@documentfoundation.org
All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted.
List archives are available at http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/