RE: Incoming - software licenses

[Black_David at emc.com]

Brian, 

> On 2007-07-17 18:24, Black_David at emc.com wrote:
> ...
> > A starting point may be that some sort of exception and official
> > approval could be required for code with a license that does not
> > permit the copyright grant to the IETF Trust required by the
> > -incoming document.  
> 
> My starting point would be to tell the person attempting to
> contribute the code to go find its original author and have
> them grant the necessary license to the IETF, independently of
> whatever other license they have put it under, and repeat until
> done. I think making exceptions possible will produce a world
> of hurt.

That's a fine starting point, but (IMHO) it's already insufficient,
because:

Exceptions are already happening - cf. Simon's example of LGPL
Base64 code, and I believe Simon has already brought a number of
other examples to our attention.  Ignoring this issue is a decision
that the existing exception process(es) are what we want.  I'd
prefer that to be a conscious decision rather than something that
happens by default.

Also, there needs to be a warning somewhere for those without
sensitive legal antennae that the copyright provisions in -incoming
conflict with copyleft software licenses.  The warning could be in
an FAQ or some sort of notice in the submission process and/or tool;
it doesn't have to be in the -incoming document itself.  My concern
here is that I suspect that the members of this mailing list are
among the minority that understand the conflict between copyleft
and the -incoming copyright grant.  

Thanks,
--David
----------------------------------------------------
David L. Black, Senior Technologist
EMC Corporation, 176 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
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black_david at emc.com        Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
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