[Bf-committers] Blender Foundation - softwarefreedom.org

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

Not sure who here read the Harmony website. Here's an interesting  
critic of it:
http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/07/07/harmony-harmful.html

In short - my impression too - the agreement has a very high and  
complex rate of statements to solely protect and serve the  
organization. It's quite disputable what a developer benefits from it...

The much more friendly readable "Sign off" from Linux kernel is  
something too:
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.commits.head/33254

Not that I like to see this overhead for each of our commits; will  
study further :)

-Ton-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands

On 24 Jul, 2011, at 14:04, Ton Roosendaal wrote:

> Hi devs,
>
> Blender Foundation has signed up an agreement with The Software
> Freedom Law Center, so they can officially help or advice us for any
> future cases when legalities might arise.
>
> This is also related to my investigation of developer agreements. I'm
> reviewing the Harmony Agreements project and discuss with them what it
> would possibly benefit Blender.
> http://harmonyagreements.org/overview.html
>
> You probably know I'm a very relaxed and non-paranoid person. I don't
> think we're being at much risk, nor am I afraid for lawyers ever, nor
> do I like it much to force our contributors to give up the rather
> informal freedom here and make them sign complex agreements.
>
> On the other hand, it's the Foundation's responsibility to ensure
> Blender developers can safely and happily work, and to ensure Blender
> itself and its future is protected in the best way possible. With
> Blender becoming a more relevant alternative for commercial products,
> it's only a matter of time for some zealot to try out how to harm our
> project legally.
>
> Here's some tips I've learned sofar for developers to avoid;
>
> - Be careful with referring to commercial products. All of these
> typically have EULAs that forbid to investigate the products for any
> other reason than to use them.
>
> - If you refer to products or technology, ensure it's public and free
> info. Include the links to such docs or web pages.
>
> - Always document your progress and designs and publish it in the
> earliest possible stage.
>
> - Don't mention (nor do) investigation of public patent databases
> ever, unless you already evidently knew it had to be done.
>
> - If you're in doubt whether your work might get risky industry
> attention, arrange with me to have it published and committed under
> "BF copyright". Even though that won't waive your liability from
> flagrant violations, it'll at least makes the BF position more clear
> in a future.
>
> - If you ever get contacted by a company or laywers firm about patents
> or IP issues, contact me individually immediate, and I'll hook you up
> with softwarefreedom.org. :)
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org     
> www.blender.org
> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The  
> Netherlands
>
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