Nees help selecting a license

[Mikko Valimaki]

John Cowan wrote:

> Christophe Dupre scripsit:
> 
>>It seems to me that TrollTech is already doing something similar, but what
>>isn't clear to me si how to deal with 3rd party patch submission. Clearly,
>>we would not be the copyright owner of those patches, and so wouldn't have
>>the right to sell commercial licenses for them, yet we'd like to not have
>>to maintain two versions of the code.
> 
> 
> Do what the FSF does: don't accept any patches without a written assignment
> of copyright to you.  (It has to be in writing, or the magic doesn't work.)

You may also rewrite the code in all the patches people send to you. 
Doing this you get the copyright (which protects expression and not idea).

This option is legally speaking much safer than trusting on a vague 
contractual assignment - however, it may mean hard work. To my 
knowledge, most dual licensors like TrollTech do this.

Regards,
Mikko


--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3