[Osmf-talk] Draft New Corporate Membership Tiers

[Tom Hughes]

On 28/04/16 03:03, Kate Chapman wrote:

> Thanks for your comments. I can see how this person might be viewed as
> the "legal voice" for OSM. I was envisioning they were more someone who
> would work with the LWG and serve as a resource for that working group.
> The OSMF would be the customer of this legal person so they would
> certainly need to respect the wishes/views of the foundation regarding
> the license/other legal matters. Is there a disadvantage to the
> community if any of the legal ambiguity is clarified?

So that makes perfect sense as a role for a legal person.

What it doesn't explain is what their role is when talking to a 
corporate member in the way suggested by the new tiers...

They can't be providing advice, because the corporate member is not 
their client and in any case the scope for conflicts of interest if they 
were trying to advise both parties would be insurmountable.

Of course if the OSMF is negotiating a legal agreement with a corporate 
member about something then this person would advise OSMF on their side 
of that agreement and might well be involved in talks with the member as 
part of the OSMF side of the negotiation. But I would expect that to be 
the case for anybody occasion when OSMF was negotiating an agreement 
with a third party, whether or not they were a corporate member.

So what exactly are you suggesting that corporate members get over and 
above what anybody else gets?

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://compton.nu/