OSI-approved license that assigns contributor copyright to me

[Alex Bligh]

--On 10 July 2005 12:26 -0700 David Barrett <dbarrett at quinthar.com> wrote:

> Actually, I would like to go to that extreme, but I disagree it would
> prevent people from using / modifying / redistributing their own
> modifications.  Indeed, if you have the right to modify version A -- to
> which I own the entire copyright -- and you modify it to version B while
> assigning me the copyright, you are merely returned to the original state
> A.  In other words, your ability to use, modify, and redistribute the
> work is identical before and after you make any modifications

>From a legal point of view, true, but only if such an assignment was
conditional upon the license of the modified version on the terms of the
original license.

>From an open-source point of view, OSI definition aside, if you are going
to get people to contribute modifications (and without that, something
is open-source merely in name) you will need to come to an equitable
arrangement which balances the rights of the contributor and the ID, and
in practical terms, the nearer the extremes you go, the less likely that
is to be the case.

Alex