Re: [tdf-discuss] Copyright Assignments & the Document Foundation

Charles-H. Schulz wrote:
> Hello BRM,
>
>
> Le Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:12:59 -0700 (PDT),
> BRM <bm_witness@yahoo.com> a écrit :
>
> > ----- Original Message ----
> >
> > > From: Charles-H. Schulz <charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org>
> > > 4) the notion that we cannot change license  because we don't have
> > > copyright assignment needs to be put to rest once and  for all
> > > today. There is a very simple explanation with respect to this

[big snip]

> > Perhaps the way around that is to require those contributing TDF to
> > use the "or later" language; though some may not want to.
> >
> > Even without copyright assignment the only thing standing in the way
> > of changing the license - whether to LGPLv4 or even GPLv3 or whatever
> > else - is getting the permission of _all_ the copyright holders.
>
> Good objection indeed! Actually, the problem is partly solved, since we
> now license our software under "LGPL v3 or later". At least it would be
> solved for the LGPL side of things. But my real answer here though, is
> perhaps more provocative: if Oracle changes the licence, do we really
> care? for the 3.3 we stick to the codebase of OOo, but I'm unsure we'll
> stick that much  to it in further releases. In fact, I can already
> point out, looking at our development activity, that we're not taking
> the path of being "OpenOffice.org, just recompiled by the community". I
> think as the time will go by, we will diverge more and more and end up
> becoming quite different software. 
>
> > >From what I understand this is already impossible to do under Linux
> > > due to 
> > deaths of at least one contributor.
>
> Yes, and in this case a rewrite is needed.

this can work in practice for small addendum, but what about bigger one?

That may take some time.

I implemented PDF/A-1a in OOo around 3 years ago
(http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/news_in_pdfexport), rewriting it
from scratch would not be a quick matter.

And, my personal opinion only, years back I signed the then Sun (J)CA, I
will sign a TDF one or similar without problem.

May be the CA should be on a voluntary basis.

Just my 0,02 as a dev, and not a lawyer.

beppec56

--
Kind Regards,
Giuseppe Castagno
Acca Esse http://www.acca-esse.eu
giuseppe.castagno at acca-esse.eu
beppec56 at openoffice.org






--
Unsubscribe instructions: Email to discuss+help@documentfoundation.org
Posting guidelines: http://netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
Archive: http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/
*** All posts to this list are publicly archived ***