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Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:37:24 -0700
From: Daniel John Debrunner <djd@debrunners.com>
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To: Derby Development <derby-dev@db.apache.org>
Subject: Re: Derby code copyright question
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Geir Magnusson Jr. wrote:

>
> On Sep 24, 2004, at 10:27 PM, Jennifer B Machovec wrote:

>
> Traditionally, the only time we distribute code under someone else's
> copyright is when we are including other works as a convenience for our
> users, such as packaging something in a distribution.  Otherwise, we
> tend not to host projects owned by other entities.  Sourceforge is good
> for that.

Incorrect.

Individual CLAs do not assign copyright to ASF, only a copyright
licence. Thus ASF is all the time distributing code that it does not
hold the copyright on. Code is distributed under a licence, the ASL for
projects at ASF, not a copyright.

See Roy's e-mail on the general@incubator.apache.org list

http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/ReadMsg?listName=general@incubator.apache.org&msgNo=4143

For corporate initial code contributions (software grants) to ASF (like
Derby & Beehive) I'm not sure if it's common to assign copyright to ASF
or not. The generic software grant agreement at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/software-grant.txt does not assign
copyright to ASF.

As Noel has said, this copyright issue is not specific to Derby.

Derby has indirectly raised the issue that those copyright ASF
statements in other ASF projects may actually be incorrect, and thus
cause potential legal problems for the ASF in the future. They may be
incorrect because ASF does not hold copyright on the code, therefore why
is it copyright ASF? A possibly correct claim is that ASF holds
copyright on the collection of contributions that make up a project.

(See this e-mail for BEA's Senior Counsel's viewpoint)
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/ReadMsg?listName=general@incubator.apache.org&msgNo=4151

I think this issue has been raised now because given the current
climate, driven by SCO vs. IBM, it is important that IP issues are
handled correctly.

Derby is being distributed under the ASL v2 and will be like other ASF
projects in that copyright will be held by a number of parties.

Going with the ASF holds copyright on the collection that is the
project, we have a proposed comment in each file that is as follows. For
some reason that I don't understand Roy seem to object to this and the
proposed notice file contents, though it may have been due to the
addition of the term "All rights reserved" (which I do not believe we need).

(see 1) in http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html)
(see http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#noc no mention of
requiring all rights reserved)

Dan.


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