I'm trying to get my head around the IP clearance process and specifically about what happens to the copyright ownership during that process. Although IP clearance gets discussed once in a while on this list I couldn't find a clear answer in the archives on this specific point.
When a project with a pre-existing code base joins the incubator, does the copyright of that code base get transferred to the ASF or will it be licensed to the ASF? Reading through the IP clearance guide [1], it mentions the Software Grant Agreement (SGA) and going to the text [2] it states that it is a License Agreement to grant a license to the ASF. Also the CCLA [3] and the ICLA [4] are license agreements. I interpret that to mean that the copyright ownership remains with the licensor and only a license is granted. On the other hand, the ASF general FAQ states that the copyright of ASF projects is owned by the ASF, more specifically "The members own the code" [5]. Also the IP Clearance template [6] has a check that says "Check and make sure that the papers that transfer rights to the ASF been received." But it seems that the SGA and *CLAs are just license agreements and don't include a transferral of rights? I must be missing something obvious here but I'm not sure what. Going through a few NOTICE files of projects doesn't really make it clearer, because some only specify the ASF as copyright owner and others specify in general terms that it "includes software [originally] developed at X". I know copyright ownership might not be a big deal to many here, but we are dealing with many open source projects where the project lead has a very strong sense of ownership over the code. Besides educating them about the issues I want to make sure I get the facts right. Sander [1] http://incubator.apache.org/guides/mentor.html#initial-ip-clearance [2] http://www.apache.org/licenses/software-grant.txt [3] http://www.apache.org/licenses/cla-corporate.txt [4] http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt [5] http://www.apache.org/foundation/faq.html#who-owns-apache-code [6] http://incubator.apache.org/ip-clearance/ip-clearance-template.html OSS Watch - supporting open source in education and research http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
