From: matt <matt@...>
Date: 2007-01-04T03:35:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Who's maintaining log4r?

I should have put a disclaimer: I'm not a legal representative!

When I was referring to IP, I was really intending copyright (I think)
to the name of the project.  This is where traditional lawyers won't
touch software copyright/IP issues, because of the grey areas. I would
know, my corporate attorney sent me out of town to use an IP
specializing attorney.  But I do believe that the original author may
still retain some rights, though to what extent I don't know, and is the
reason that I recommended RubyForge consult with there attorney before
making any decisions.
Matt


On Thu, 2007-01-04 at 02:42 +0900, pat eyler wrote:
> On 1/3/07, matt <matt@kettlewell.net> wrote:
> >
> > > >
> > > > 2) A lot of those issues can probably be bypassed in most cases by simply
> > > > adding someone to the project as a developer with commit privs, leaving
> > > > the actual ownership of the project in place.
> > > >
> > >
> >
> > We still need to consider that this is someone elses intellectual
> > property,
> 
> What do you mean by intellectual property?   That's a pretty meaningless
> term.  If you mean the code.  It's under an open source license and while
> the original code still belongs to the writer(s), it can certainly be used
> as the starting point for ongoing development under the same license.
> If you mean the project name, then the situation becomes more sticky
> does the name belong to the community or the admin?
> 
> > so we might need to be careful about this, just in case the
> > original owner was to come back. If other people are committing, without
> > his approval, it might be a violation of his IP. I think that if it is
> > carefully documented, the process of trying to locate the owner, over a
> > period of time, that it shouldn't be a problem, but there are some
> > definite legalities that RubyForge should have there attorney approve
> > first.  The other question becomes, who maintains the documents of
> > proving an abandoned project?  I think that for existing projects, we
> > might be SOL, but for future projects, I think that the the policy of
> > abandonment will need to be agreed to upon creation of a new project.
> >
> > Just adding my pennies to the wishing well
> >
> > Matt
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
>