R
Robert Myers
Greetings,
In another thread, George raised some issues concerning the business
aspects of open source software.
Novell has a copyright assignment form that explicitly asks
contributors to warrant that the code they are contributing is not
encumbered by third party rights:
http://ftp.novell.com//pub/forge/evolution/docs/copyright_form.pdf
<quote>
7. As far as you know, you have the legal right to make this copyright
assignment.
8. If your employer(s) or others (“Third Parties”) generally have
rights to some intellectual property that you create,
you have permission to make this copyright assignment on behalf of
such Third Parties, the Third Parties have
waived such rights, or the Third Parties have no such rights with
respect to the Assigned Contributions.
</quote>
I don't know how much good that would do anyone against the likes of
SCO or Microsoft. In any case, there is apparently still not a
required release of copyright for contributions to the Linux kernel:
http://lwn.net/Articles/105569/
As to the volunteer nature of Linux, Business week says:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_05/b3918001_mz001.htm
< quote>
Put bluntly, Linux has turned pro. Torvalds now has a team of
lieutenants, nearly all of them employed by tech companies, that
oversees development of top-priority projects. Tech giants such as IBM
(IBM ), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ), and Intel (INTC ) are clustered around
the Finn, contributing technology, marketing muscle, and thousands of
professional programmers. IBM alone has 600 programmers dedicated to
Linux, up from two in 1999. There's even a board of directors that
helps set the priorities for Linux development.
</quote>
RM
In another thread, George raised some issues concerning the business
aspects of open source software.
Novell has a copyright assignment form that explicitly asks
contributors to warrant that the code they are contributing is not
encumbered by third party rights:
http://ftp.novell.com//pub/forge/evolution/docs/copyright_form.pdf
<quote>
7. As far as you know, you have the legal right to make this copyright
assignment.
8. If your employer(s) or others (“Third Parties”) generally have
rights to some intellectual property that you create,
you have permission to make this copyright assignment on behalf of
such Third Parties, the Third Parties have
waived such rights, or the Third Parties have no such rights with
respect to the Assigned Contributions.
</quote>
I don't know how much good that would do anyone against the likes of
SCO or Microsoft. In any case, there is apparently still not a
required release of copyright for contributions to the Linux kernel:
http://lwn.net/Articles/105569/
As to the volunteer nature of Linux, Business week says:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_05/b3918001_mz001.htm
< quote>
Put bluntly, Linux has turned pro. Torvalds now has a team of
lieutenants, nearly all of them employed by tech companies, that
oversees development of top-priority projects. Tech giants such as IBM
(IBM ), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ), and Intel (INTC ) are clustered around
the Finn, contributing technology, marketing muscle, and thousands of
professional programmers. IBM alone has 600 programmers dedicated to
Linux, up from two in 1999. There's even a board of directors that
helps set the priorities for Linux development.
</quote>
RM