[OSM-legal-talk] Copyright Assignment

Gervase Markham gerv-gmane at gerv.net
Fri Jan 1 16:15:48 GMT 2010


On 26/12/09 18:30, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Gervase Markham wrote:
>> The new Contributor Terms contain the equivalent of a joint copyright
>> assignment to the OSMF.
> 
> You have said that multiple times already, but I - and, it seems, others 
> - don't view it that way. You do not assign copyright to OSMF; you only 
> grant them a license to sublicense.

>From the Contributor Terms:

"You hereby grant to OSMF and any party that receives Your Contents a
worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license
to do any act that is restricted by copyright over anything within the
Contents, whether in the original medium or any other."

If the OSMF has the right to do "any act that is restricted by
copyright" then they effectively have a joint copyright ownership.
Except perhaps that they can't sue for copyright violation, although (as
the article notes) that's not usually a big factor.

>> That makes this recent article by Michael Meeks
>> on copyright assignment in free software very relevant:
> 
> If the article is only relevant to copyright assignment situations, then 
> I don't think it is relevant for us.

If you read it, you will see that it discusses the effects on a
community of having copyright assignment.

The article lists both pros and cons, and says there are fewer cons for
a non-profit than for a commercial company. I am not quoting it here
because I agree with everything in it, or because it "supports my case"
(whatever "my case" is). I'm putting it here because I think it's an
interesting and relevant point of view.

Gerv





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