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Matthew Flaschen wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid45A74F28.8050706@gatech.edu" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">David Woolley wrote:
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<pre wrap="">they must be assigned (possibly jointly) to the company; following the
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<pre wrap="">I've never heard of joint assignments. I think you would definitely need
a lawyer, and probably an accountant, in that case. My guess is that, in
the UK, the result would actually be that the license was assigned to
a trust with both parties as trustees.
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<pre wrap=""><!---->
Hmm, that's interesting. IANAL, but in the U.S. I'm fairly certain that
JCA's are legal (Sun and others have been using similar forms for a long
time). Obviously, consult a lawyer to figure out how to create one.
The idea of an automatic trust seems kind of strange to me, kind of like
an anonymous function. In the U.S. I think you need to file paperwork
to create any kind of trust.
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Very common and quite legal. A JCA protects the users IP rights
entirely while also protecting<br>
the steward of the mass of contibuted/donated code at the same time.
Moreover it also serves to<br>
protect the end users and developers from random copyright changes by
any given contributor<br>
in an extended queue of folks. The ability for the single entity to
administer such changes<br>
effectively protects the project as a whole - given the implied trust
in that entity: But just<br>
imagine the bad press and ill-will such an entity would incur if it
were to subvert the will<br>
and want of the Community as a whole with any changes veering from the
Free and Open<br>
Source mentality. (I'd quit and send a huge flying bird . . .)<br>
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For an example see: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.openoffice.org/licenses/jca.pdf">http://www.openoffice.org/licenses/jca.pdf</a>
(Community Approved)<br>
along with the FAQ -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/faq-licensing.html#usinglicenses">http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/faq-licensing.html#usinglicenses</a><br>
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This JCA has been found acceptable to well over 700 signatories - which
is<br>
really quite amazing when one considers the context of Open Source
project contributions.<br>
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Of course you'll want to consult with an attorney for your own . . .<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid45A74F28.8050706@gatech.edu" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Matthew Flaschen
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