Derek Neighbors wrote:

>PLUG is not a legal entity but AZOTO is.  AZOTO was designed to be the
>legal entity behind PLUG.  I would suggest that you deal with the issue of
>copyright early in the process.
>  
>
Agreed.

>If you have several developers I do not think you want each author being
>the sole holder of their copyright for practical purposes.  It would be my
>suggestion that copyright assignment be given to the FSF, AZOTO or another
>legal entity like ASULUG.  Each developer would still keep their copyright
>authority to what they wrote, but the work as a whole would have an entity
>able to defend it if necessary without having to wrangle all the
>individual copyright holders.
>  
>
Also agreed, for critical code segments.  I don't see the need to have 
assignment for all of the code, so long as we have certain other 
affidavits from the original author (much as the Linux kernel does).  If 
AZOTO is able and willing to accept copyright assignment, then I'd 
prefer to take that route.  Otherwise we'll need to look into some other 
options.  Regardless of how we handle it, I expect we'll need to have a 
standard copyright provision in a form that developers sign when 
requesting commit access.  I suspect we'll also need to include a 
disclaimer of some sort in the project FAQ that any patch submissions 
also require relevant affidavits and possibly assignment.

As far as retention of copyright, it doesn't actually work that way. 
Once copyright is assigned, the author retains authorship rights, but 
the copyright itself is exclusive to the new owner.  The assignment form 
should document if any of the rights reserved by copyright are 
shared/retained by the original author.  The assignment form should also 
specify that the assigned copyright will be licensed under the GPL, as 
otherwise the assignee could re-release the copyrighted code under some 
other license, which remains a subtle threat to the original intent of 
the author(s) (OpenOffice does this, and many people will not contribute 
for that reason).

However we decide to handle copyright assignment, it need not be handled 
right away, as long as we can keep track of the original authors, we can 
wait a few months before making any kind of final decision on the 
topic.  That gives the original authors time to see the project 
progress, and form their own view on the issue, which I feel is pretty 
important, since the authors should really have the final say in this.

>Just a suggestion.
>
>-Derek
>  
>
>>Then we should wait until phase 2 for tracking donations.  ASULUG is a
>>legal
>>entity, and we do give charitable receipts, and we do require demographics
>>for
>>funding purposes.  But for now we should focus only on the regular plug
>>fests
>>and keep the second half of this as a phase 2 issue.
>>
>>On Tue, 29 Mar 2005, Alan Dayley wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>I would believe this to be a must, not only should we be tracking our
>>>>volunteers, but also relating them to skill sets, donations, etc.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Think
>>>      
>>>
>>>>of how easy it would be come March of next year when all you have to
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>do
>>>      
>>>
>>>>is query your database to generate charitable donation receipts (I
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>know,
>>>      
>>>
>>>>I think like an accountant ;)
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Just to be clear here: PLUG is not a legal entity and does not track
>>>donations or funds of any kind.  Anything of value given to the group is
>>>not tracked.  PLUG does not accept cash or any instruments of money
>>>since
>>>we have no entity, structure or policy to handle it.
>>>
>>>That said, tracking who can do what is a good idea that has been bounced
>>>around for some time.  It would have many purposes even beyond the
>>>group.
>>>For example, Thrum would like to setup a list of people knowledgeable is
>>>various subjects that could be guest lecturers at SCC or other community
>>>college campuses (campi?).
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>In addition, we should also track our customers (ie. those that come
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>to
>>>      
>>>
>>>>installfest for help)  As accurate information will lead to increased
>>>>funding (I am missing out on a bunch of funding because I have no
>>>>information on who has been coming to our ASU installfests, -- Then
>>>>again, I have very little info on the ASULUG members as well)
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Again, funding is not the goal.  Helping new "customers" is an excellent
>>>goal.
>>>
>>>Alan
>>>
>>>
>>>
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