Users - Apache License - Copyright Ownership

[David Garrett-2]

David,

I would like to clarify an issue I have seen you refer to several times. Can
we get some assistance here from the ASF's V.P., Legal Affairs Cliff
Schmidt?

You wrote in a recent reply to Chris Howe :

===============David Jones wrote:

On the licensing issue... In general all artifacts in OFBiz _should_ have
one and only one copyright notice for "The Open For Business Project", and
to make it clear we put the URL in there too. The implication is that the
copyright is assigned to the project, however this has not been explicit in
the past. If/when we move to Apache the copyright will be owned by the ASF
and it will be explicit that all copyrights of contributions are assigned to
the ASF.
===

You seem to suggest that there is assignment of the ownership of the
copyright.

My understanding that in general(or at least in many cases) the copyright
remains with the initial contributor and what is granted (currently by
implication) is a *licence* to use the copyright. The key distinction being
licencing rights and assignment of copyright. Licencing rights according to
MIT or ASF transfers sufficiently flexible set of rights we all have been
happily enjoying for some time. At the same time I understand that the
original copyright creator retains that copyright and may even licence that
copyright under different terms eg GPL or restrictive commercial.

I have included below 2 significant clauses from the ASF Individual
Contributor's License:


This license is for your protection as a Contributor as well as the
protection of the Foundation and its users; it does not change your rights
to use your own Contributions for any other purpose.


2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
   this Agreement, You hereby grant to the Foundation and to
   recipients of software distributed by the Foundation a perpetual,
   worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
   copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
   publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your
   Contributions and such derivative works.


...
In my legal juridiction copyright transfer (generally)needs to be by
specific assignment. These licence clauses from contributors are sufficient
to resolve the usage rights of ASF projects, even without assignment of
copyright ... At least for me :)

David G



 
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[davidnwelton]

Hi Cliff - this question looks like something in your bailiwick, if
you had a moment to answer a few questions about Apache licensing.

I'm not sure how this list handles non-subscriber posts, but if you CC
me, I'll make sure it gets through in one way or another.

Thanks,
Dave

On 12/11/05, David Garrett <[hidden email]> wrote:

> David,
>
> I would like to clarify an issue I have seen you refer to several times. Can
> we get some assistance here from the ASF's V.P., Legal Affairs Cliff
> Schmidt?
>
> You wrote in a recent reply to Chris Howe :
>
> ===============David Jones wrote:
>
> On the licensing issue... In general all artifacts in OFBiz _should_ have
> one and only one copyright notice for "The Open For Business Project", and
> to make it clear we put the URL in there too. The implication is that the
> copyright is assigned to the project, however this has not been explicit in
> the past. If/when we move to Apache the copyright will be owned by the ASF
> and it will be explicit that all copyrights of contributions are assigned to
> the ASF.
> ===
>
> You seem to suggest that there is assignment of the ownership of the
> copyright.
>
> My understanding that in general(or at least in many cases) the copyright
> remains with the initial contributor and what is granted (currently by
> implication) is a *licence* to use the copyright. The key distinction being
> licencing rights and assignment of copyright. Licencing rights according to
> MIT or ASF transfers sufficiently flexible set of rights we all have been
> happily enjoying for some time. At the same time I understand that the
> original copyright creator retains that copyright and may even licence that
> copyright under different terms eg GPL or restrictive commercial.
>
> I have included below 2 significant clauses from the ASF Individual
> Contributor's License:
>
>
> This license is for your protection as a Contributor as well as the
> protection of the Foundation and its users; it does not change your rights
> to use your own Contributions for any other purpose.
>
>
> 2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
>    this Agreement, You hereby grant to the Foundation and to
>    recipients of software distributed by the Foundation a perpetual,
>    worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
>    copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
>    publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your
>    Contributions and such derivative works.
>
>
> ...
> In my legal juridiction copyright transfer (generally)needs to be by
> specific assignment. These licence clauses from contributors are sufficient
> to resolve the usage rights of ASF projects, even without assignment of
> copyright ... At least for me :)
>
> David G
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users
>

--
David N. Welton
 - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/

Linux, Open Source Consulting
 - http://www.dedasys.com/
 
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[David E. Jones]

As I understand it this is correct. There is not assignment of  
ownership of the copyright, just assignment of rights to use and  
copyright the given material. Like you said, this means that you can  
take your work and do other things with it like license it  
differently or whatever. Of course, the other things you do with it  
are totally independent of the open source project (Apache licensed)  
and have no effect on what the contribution means or how it is used  
in the open source project.

-David


On Dec 11, 2005, at 1:18 AM, David Garrett wrote:

> David,
>
> I would like to clarify an issue I have seen you refer to several  
> times. Can
> we get some assistance here from the ASF's V.P., Legal Affairs Cliff
> Schmidt?
>
> You wrote in a recent reply to Chris Howe :
>
> ===============David Jones wrote:
>
> On the licensing issue... In general all artifacts in OFBiz  
> _should_ have
> one and only one copyright notice for "The Open For Business  
> Project", and
> to make it clear we put the URL in there too. The implication is  
> that the
> copyright is assigned to the project, however this has not been  
> explicit in
> the past. If/when we move to Apache the copyright will be owned by  
> the ASF
> and it will be explicit that all copyrights of contributions are  
> assigned to
> the ASF.
> ===
>
> You seem to suggest that there is assignment of the ownership of the
> copyright.
>
> My understanding that in general(or at least in many cases) the  
> copyright
> remains with the initial contributor and what is granted (currently by
> implication) is a *licence* to use the copyright. The key  
> distinction being
> licencing rights and assignment of copyright. Licencing rights  
> according to
> MIT or ASF transfers sufficiently flexible set of rights we all  
> have been
> happily enjoying for some time. At the same time I understand that the
> original copyright creator retains that copyright and may even  
> licence that
> copyright under different terms eg GPL or restrictive commercial.
>
> I have included below 2 significant clauses from the ASF Individual
> Contributor's License:
>
>
> This license is for your protection as a Contributor as well as the
> protection of the Foundation and its users; it does not change your  
> rights
> to use your own Contributions for any other purpose.
>
>
> 2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
>    this Agreement, You hereby grant to the Foundation and to
>    recipients of software distributed by the Foundation a perpetual,
>    worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
>    copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
>    publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your
>    Contributions and such derivative works.
>
>
> ...
> In my legal juridiction copyright transfer (generally)needs to be by
> specific assignment. These licence clauses from contributors are  
> sufficient
> to resolve the usage rights of ASF projects, even without  
> assignment of
> copyright ... At least for me :)
>
> David G
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users

 
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