I see there is some wordsmithing discussion going on concerning the draft from
Andreas. I confess that it is difficult for me to contribute to that
considering that I find the entire activity one that requires a more global
perspective.
Here are a few observations. I am afraid I have nothing useful to contribute
beyond this.
1. THE ROLE OF THE ASF
Nowhere in this account is there any recognition of the part that the ASF
has in what users of releases from Apache Projects can rely on with regard to
the provenance of the code and the applicable license(s). In particular, it is
very important how the ASF operates in good faith in relying on declarations
that contributors make about having the right to make their contributions.
2. SBA AND FSF DISPUTES AND LITIGATION
The information about SBA activities, and FSF activities, is not supported
by useful information about what specific disputes were and how settlements
were obtained without litigation in most cases. The page under discussion
identifies some worst-case situations that are not representative of what
happens, and does not indicate any specifics about when the reported disputes
occurred and how someone could find details of them (including what the actual
bounty offer is from SBA and where in the world all this applies).
I submit that a software producer could distribute binaries under per-seat
licenses that were based on software completely under a permissive license and
dispute violations of the terms under which those binaries were made available
to a customer. While that may be far-fetched, there is nothing about the
licenses that makes it so.
3. THE SMALL MATTER OF PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS
I already suggested that anyone who wants to make a derivative of the AOO
release has to contend with all of the license that apply to that code (not
just ALv2) and be satisfied concerning the safety of their so doing. That is
especially the case for a commercial actor having the kind of assets that would
have them be vulnerable to a dispute over license conditions.
Nowhere is it mentioned about how patents are dealt with in ALv2 and that
there still remains the fact that patents not held by contributors can still be
infringed by the code or by the employment of the software in processes that
constitute infringements of patents held by third parties. Any commercial
actor has to be attentive to this matter regardless of the form of open-source
license that applies to the software itself.
We already know about trademarks and how that can be a factor in what
someone can do with the derivative or a distribution that they produce.
I submit that commercial actors, especially, will arrange to understand what
they need to do to ensure compliance in their activities, and such parties are
not going to rely on that web page in such matters.
And just today there was a request on the users@ oo.a.o list asking for
reassurance that redistribution of AOO within an organization was acceptable.
- Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis E. Hamilton [mailto:dennis.hamil...@acm.org]
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 07:55
To: 'dev@openoffice.apache.org'
Cc: 'Jim Jagielski'
Subject: RE: [DISCUSS] Inappropriate "Compliance Costs"
Please note that I have also included Jim Jagielski in this reply, although he
has reported that he does not follow dev@ here. I suspect continuing to do
this is an intrusion on him, yet providing a BCC or separate forward seems
inappropriate as well.
<orcmid>
Jim has since asked to be copied on continuing discussion on this topic.
</orcmid>
I have not seen a [Vote][Result] on the currently-open vote on what to do about
this page, so it is odd to have a revision in hand while we are still
deliberating on what direction to take. That may be an e-mail glitch on my
part.
<orcmid>
The vote result has now been announced and a majority of the ballots cast
favored retention of the web page with modifications and clarifications.
</orcmid>
[ ... ]
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