[pydotorg-www] PSF Contributor form

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Hi Mats,

unfortunately, the only way we (as the PSF) can properly protect
the Python IP is by having a clear copyright and license chain
from the contributors to the PSF. Since contributors give
the PSF far more than just a usage license, this has to be handled
using a contributor agreement.

Note that we just need this for copyrightable contributions, not
small bug fixes. And you only need to go through the process once,
since it covers past and future contributions.

Thanks,
-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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Mats Wichmann wrote:
> On 04/21/2012 11:08 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" wrote:
>> Am 22.04.2012 01:02, schrieb Mats Wichmann:
>>> As an employee of a "large corporation", I'll observe that the problem
>>> with contributor forms is once you have to sign one, the lawyer has to
>>> get involved.  Once the lawyer has to get involved, life WILL get
>>> complicated. 
>>
>> Tough luck. Then you just can't contribute to Python. I'm serious about
>> this: if your company's lawyer is not happy that you essentially give
>> all rights of your contribution to the PSF, then the PSF cannot use your
>> contribution. The risk is too high that the lawyer finds out at some
>> point and claims that your company has rights to Python. That's
>> *exactly* one of the reasons to have contributor forms: to get the
>> employer of a contributor to explicitly acknowledge that it is ok to
>> contribute (assuming the employer has rights over the contribution).
> 
> I guess I have to feel free to disagree.   For my case, my big company
> has been involved in open source for a long time, we have a clear well
> documented process for contributions to projects, and though that
> process has gotten more complicated over the years since I did it, I
> have gone through it for Python, following all the necessary steps, and
> it's all approved: the people who need to know, do know, the bases are
> all covered, with a clear understanding that the contributions are all
> that, no ownership interest would be retained by us.  If there's a new
> "contributor agreement", it does mean a lawyer has to look at it in
> excruciating detail. And as a deal unique to PSF, that means the chance
> of issues. This question is not supposed to be be about me, as noted, so
> maybe the impression I have of "if used to work, now it's going to get
> more complicated" looms bigger.  But I do know we've had problems with
> both the Ubuntu contributor agreement, and the Fedora one, to name two
> that actually affected me.  There are projects that get by without "you
> must sign this assignment of rights" type contributor agreements, not
> sure why Python can't be one of them.
> 
> (yes, these are only my personal reactions, take them for whatever 0.05%
> value they may have)