[legal] Comments on copyright license in the proposed IPR policy

[Drummond Reed]

Gabe and Simon,

I agree with Gabe that having a party for coordinating the copyright makes a
lot of sense. Since this is what the OIDF was set up for, I think it's a
good fit.

=Drummond 

-----Original Message-----
From: legal-bounces at openid.net [mailto:legal-bounces at openid.net] On Behalf
Of Gabe Wachob
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 11:31 AM
To: 'Simon Josefsson'; legal at openid.net
Subject: Re: [legal] Comments on copyright license in the proposed IPR
policy

Simon-
	Thanks for the feedback. I had similar feedback when this IPR draft
was initially proposed (in private). Feel free to add this comment to the
wiki. Fortunately, I think the copyright issues are far easier to deal with
than the patent issues, and I suspect that with enough feedback like this,
we can surely have copyright licensing that is more in line with your
suggestion. The one thing I don't know that we have is a party identified
that can hold the copyright - it could be copyright by all the authors, but
that's unwieldy - I'd rather see assignment to a coordinating party (like
IETF does). 

	Perhaps the OIDF is that party. 

	If others share Simon's concerns, please say so here. 

	-Gabe

> -----Original Message-----
> From: legal-bounces at openid.net [mailto:legal-bounces at openid.net] On Behalf
> Of Simon Josefsson
> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 4:53 AM
> To: legal at openid.net
> Subject: [legal] Comments on copyright license in the proposed IPR policy
> 
> Hi!  I'm new to the OpenId.net lists.  I am an independent developer,
> and I am working on OpenID related stuff for a startup company.  I have
> also participated in discussions for better IPR conditions within the
> IETF.  A recent document that collect some insight from that is:
> 
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-josefsson-free-standards-howto-
> 00.txt
> 
> I reviewed the OpenID IPR policy, and I've notice one potential
> problematic thing in the copyright license, with regards to free
> software license compatibility.  The copyright license says:
> 
>    "Copyright License. Some Contributions are not subject to
>    copyright. However, to the extent a Contribution is or may be subject
>    to copyright, the Contributor hereby agrees to grant a perpetual,
>    non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide copyright license to OpenID,
>    to other Contributors, and to Implementers, to reproduce, prepare
>    derivative works from, distribute, perform and display the
>    Contribution and derivative works thereof solely for the development
>    and implementation of OpenID Specifications."
> 
> This do not grant a copyright license to third parties.  Is that the
> intention?
> 
> I'm having trouble seeing how a free software product would reference
> the OpenID copyright license, when it borrows material from the
> specifications.  Do you even allow free software to borrow material from
> OpenID specifications?
> 
> Will there be a 'Copyright (C) XXXX OpenID Foundation'?
> 
> It is common for copyright licenses to require that the copyright notice
> and the license must be retained in all copies of derived material.  I
> could not find similar wordings in your policy.
> 
> Suggestions:
> 
> In addition to your own copyright license, dual-license contributions
> under a widely known free license, e.g., the GPL, GFDL or CC-BY-SA
> 
> Alternatively, just license everything under a permissible license, such
> as the BSD or MIT license.
> 
> Thanks for your consideration,
> Simon
> _______________________________________________
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> legal at openid.net
> http://openid.net/mailman/listinfo/legal

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