AIUI, copyrights never get re-assigned. There is a collective copyright for the collective work, but each line of code is still owned by some entity/person that contributed it.
Copyright law apparently only allows the copyright owner or a person they authorize to muck with copyright statements in headers, and since Apache prefers that copyright notices go in the NOTICE file, it is a good thing if every copyright owner is a committer so they can muck with the header themselves. But for sure, in one case, I have gotten permission from the copyright holder to make the changes since they did not want to be a committer. The SGA grants permission for the code to be licensed under ALv2, so is not fully required when the donated code base is already under ALv2. In such a case it sort of provides a paper trail that the code base participants/community are ok with moving the "home" of the code to ASF repos. There is a recent thread on that. So, IMO, the only gotchas in this case are if the headers have this individual's copyright in it and we want it moved to NOTICE. And if this individual or his employer somehow tries to argue that they did not intend to allow the contributions to be under ALv2 in the first place, or doesn't want the ASF to be the new home for this code, which seems unlikely. HTH, -Alex On 1/15/16, 5:21 AM, "Josh Elser" <josh.el...@gmail.com> wrote: >Thanks, Greg. > >I thought the whole point of this part of the process was that we could >assign the copyright from the original contributors to the ASF - the thing >that licenses wouldn't be covering. That's great that this isn't a >sticking >point, I'm just honestly a bit confused. >On Jan 15, 2016 12:15 AM, "Greg Stein" <gst...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Exactly ... just bring the work into the ASF under its ALv2 license. You >> don't need permission from (all) contributors to use the software under >> that license. That's *why* we have licenses! >> >> Rewriting the headers is a little trickier, though. I'd suggest a two >>step >> process: >> >> 1) bring in the code, but don't (yet) touch any of the license/copyright >> headers in there >> 2) ask legal-discuss what to do with the headers >> >> Cheers, >> -g >> >> ps. I'd think: for any file jbnote touched, keep/push the existing >>header >> down and prepend the standard ASF header; all other untouched files, >> replace any header with ours. >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 1:37 PM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote: >> >> > Looks like the repo was placed under the Apache License long before >>this >> > individual contributed. So, IMO, if you are convinced this individual >> and >> > his employer knew his contributions were placed under the Apache >>License >> > you could gamble and accept his contributions. If you get an >>objection >> > later, you can delete and re-implement the contributions. >> > >> > My 2 cents, >> > -Alex >> > >> > On 1/14/16, 10:45 AM, "Josh Elser" <els...@apache.org> wrote: >> > >> > >Hi all, >> > > >> > >(with my podling member hat on) >> > > >> > >We have a bit of a problem over in Slider with a code donation. Full >> > >details can be found at >> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SLIDER-977 >> > > >> > >In short, an app-package (a modular chunk of code that Slider runs on >> > >Apache Hadoop's YARN ) for Kafka was offered to be included in >>Slider. >> > >Slider would love to accept it. We've gotten IP clearance from all >>but >> > >one party who contributed to it. >> > > >> > >To the best of my knowledge, this individual contributed code to this >> > >Kafka app-package and his company could also lay claim to his >> > >contribution. He already had an ICLA on file, but no CCLA from his >> > >company. >> > > >> > >Two months later, multiple pings on JIRA and even a personal email, >>this >> > >person seems to be AWOL. Given my understanding of the rules, we >>can't >> > >proceed because we don't have the ability to prove all potential >> > >previous ownership of this codebase has been granted to the ASF. >> > > >> > >Any advice on how we could try to move this forward? >> > > >> > >Thanks. >> > > >> > >- Josh >> > > >> > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > >To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org >> > >For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org >> > > >> > >> > >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
