Re: [xwiki-devs] [Proposal] Add CLA for contributions + Foundation

Hi, I agree Caleb, a CLA needs a purpose. Now we don't necessarly need to have in the CLA what we usually find (a copyright assignment). What we need is for instance an agreement to publish the code as open source. Now giving more rights to the "XWiki Project" (as a legal entity) could have some benefits beyond changing the licence (which could be useful in case the licence for any reasons has some legal issues). These benefits are: - have an entity that can defend wrongful usages of the code beyond the initial copyright owners - guarantee the rights of all users of XWiki - clarify the way the XWiki brand is allowed to be used On the subject of the XWiki Brand, currently the brand is owned by me personally. As part for instance as setting up a foundation I could assign a right to use the XWiki brand as part of the open source code for the XWiki project, as long as the open source principles are still maintained. This would clarify the rights and protect the committers and the project. I'm +1 for a foundation, and a light CLA. The foundation should have it's open source principles written in stone. On the ability to change the licence it's something that is worth a discussion.

Ludovic 2013/1/19 Caleb James DeLisle <calebdelisle(a)lavabit.com> > Hi Vincent, > > The only reason I see for a CLA is to allow the organization to relicense > the > code under a different license. Being difficult to re-license makes the > project more stable and I don't see any major problems with the LGPL. > > The idea that "every project needs a CLA" which seems to be implied by > oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/cla is easily dispelled by the fact that Linux, > one of the largest and most successful FOSS projects in the world, requires > only a promise that the contributor are able to license the code under GPL. > > What are your reasons for the CLA proposal? > > In the case of the node.js license, you are forced to grant Joyent inc > permission to license your work any way they see fit, including > proprietary. > This makes node.js project subject to the whim of Joyent's directors. > > From a technical perspective, extracting a signature from everyone who has > ever contributed a patch to XWiki would be very difficult and there would > inevitably remain code within the codebase which was not transferred. > > On the point of SF Conservancy and SPI, I would be guarded about > transferring a license to an organization until I knew the organization > (who runs it, what internal controls does it have) and had an assessment of > the dollar value of such a transfer. Just to pull out a number, the > codebase is probably worth somewhere in the 10's of millions of $. > > > > Fortunately we're all pretty friendly in this community so a lot of the > darker what-if's just never come up but I think we should still remain > vigilant about new legal structures, especially if they involve putting > trust in people who none of us know. > > Thanks, > Caleb > > > > > On 01/17/2013 05:19 AM, Vincent Massol wrote: >> Hi devs, >> >> I'd like to propose the following: >> * That we start asking for a CLA for contributions (and also for current > committers) >> * That we keep the process lightweight in order to not make it harder to > contribute to the xwiki project. For this I propose to use > http://www.clahub.com/ >> >> In order to understand why we need a CLA read: >> * http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/cla >> * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement >> >> If we agree we then need to define our CLA. I think a good starting > point could be the Node.js one: >> http://nodejs.org/cla.html >> >> Now I don't think the CLA will have any legal value if we cannot define > "the XWiki project" as a legal entity. >> >> Thus I believe we need to start by joining some foundation or creating > one. >> >> I'll list some easy possibilities: >> * SF Conservancy: http://sfconservancy.org/members/current/ >> * SPI: http://www.spi-inc.org/projects/ >> * Create our own Not for profit association >> >> Harder possibilities (need to change license, rename project, etc): >> * Join ASF >> * Join Eclipse (and be forced to use bugzilla as the issue tracker ;)) >> >> We also need to check if OW2 could offer that service of being a legal > entity for XWiki. >> >> Personally I'm tempted more by our own association (it's quite easy to > create one if we don't need to accept money and a bit more complex if we > want to accept money but still doable). My second choice goes to SFC. >> >> WDYT? >> >> Thanks >> -Vincent