[Xorp-users] RFC: Explicitly note that new code contributions are copy-righted by the submitter.

Mark Handley M.Handley at cs.ucl.ac.uk
Sun Apr 25 01:50:44 PDT 2010


The LICENCE file does need to change, or it could be viewed as
granting copyright to XORP, Inc, which is not the intent.  I'm fine
with your wording.  It seems reasonably unambiguous.

In addition to amending the licence, we should amend the copyright
line on any file we update to be:
// Copyright (c) 2001-2009 XORP, Inc and (c) 2010 by individual contributors.

This makes it clear that XORP, Inc does not own the copyright on new
changes on that specific file.

 - Mark


On 23 April 2010 18:24, Ben Greear <greearb at candelatech.com> wrote:
>
> I propose to update the LICENSE file to explicitly note that contributions
> on or after today are copyright by the submitter unless otherwise specified
> in the commit message and/or committed code.
>
> This ensures that no single entity can re-license XORP or otherwise
> take changes in the public svn tree and use or relicense them in ways not
> compatible
> with the current license scheme (GPL, LGPL, other) without consent
> of all committers from today on.  I believe this will help make
> xorp stronger and it will certainly make me happier about committing
> my changes to the public svn tree.
>
>
>
> [greearb at ben-dt2 xorp]$ git diff
> diff --git a/trunk/xorp/LICENSE b/trunk/xorp/LICENSE
> index 69e6102..a143666 100644
> --- a/trunk/xorp/LICENSE
> +++ b/trunk/xorp/LICENSE
> @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
> -#
> -# $XORP: xorp/LICENSE,v 1.11 2008/10/02 21:56:13 bms Exp $
> -#
>
>  With the exception of code derived from other sources, all XORP software
> -is copyrighted by XORP, Inc. [Copyright (c) 2001-2009 XORP, Inc.].
> -Files containing derived software are listed in the "LICENSE.other" file
> -together with their corresponding copyrights and original licenses.
> +committed prior to April 23, 2010 is copyrighted by
> +XORP, Inc. [Copyright (c) 2001-2009 XORP, Inc.].  Changes committed
> +on or after April 23, 2010 are copyrighted by the author unless
> +otherwise specified in the commit message. Files containing derived
> +software are listed in the "LICENSE.other" file together with their
> +corresponding copyrights and original licenses.
>
>  All XORP software is licensed under the GNU General Public License,
>  Version 2, June 1991 contained in the "LICENSE.gpl" file unless
>
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>
> --
> Ben Greear <greearb at candelatech.com>
> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>
>



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