OVPL and open ownership

[Chris F Clark]

I think the ability to create a derivative work, where some sections
of code are opted-out of the section 3.3 grant of license to the ID by
making those sections BSD licensed has merits, but has some
implementation issues.  In particular, as Andy Wilson points out, how
does one have a "file" that contains both opt-in and opt-out code?

I think one solution to this problem might be the explicit allowance
of "patch-files" and requiring such patch-files to be either under the
OVPL or the BSD license of choice (for simplicity I made this a binary
choice, clealy one could exetnd this to include a variety of license
choices for patch-files).  This would give the developers who wish to
opt-out a clear way of indicating the code which they are not
specifically licensing back to the ID a way of doing so.  It would
clearly distinguish the opt-in versus opt-out code.

And, while I don't think patch-files are generally considered the
ideal solution for maintaining sources, for this purpose they do have
advantages.  In particular, it gives one a metric for how much code
has been contributed by the ID.  If the patch file is small relative
to the original source, the ID still has a major investment.  If the
reverse is true, the ID has become a free-rider.  When the patch-file
becomes significant enough, the original source becomes effectively a
patch and it should be easy enough to re-write the original sections
that are still retained and fork completely away from the ID.  (And if
it isn't easy, then the original IP still has made a significant
contribution to the functionality.)

-(Chris) Clark [to distinguish myself from the other Chris
 contributing to this discussion]

prototype section 3.3.1: (not written by a lawyer, so will need revising)

3.3.1 A developer can opt-out of granting the ID the license mentioned
    in section 3.3 to the changed portions of a derivative work by
    making the changes in a patch-file and making that patch file
    publicly available under the BSD license or the OVPL.  The
    patch-file may be distributed as part of a distribution containing
    OVPL code and doing so does not apply the OVPL to the patch-file,
    nor does it apply the BSD license to the OVPL code.