[Twisted-Python] Re: [Twisted-commits] r13641 - No, consigning copyright means it is _not_ (C) you. Let's keep this file simple, please.

[Mary Gardiner]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2005, Glyph Lefkowitz wrote:
> Modified:
>    trunk/LICENSE
> Log:
> No, consigning copyright means it is _not_ (C) you.  Let's keep this file simple, please.

[snip]

> +Copyright (c) 2004,2005 Twisted Matrix Labs, http://www.twistedmatrix.com/
> +(except as listed below)
>  
>  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
>  a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
> @@ -47,4 +23,5 @@
>  Copyright Exceptions:
> -
> +	- Portions copyright Massachusetts Institute of Technology, due to
> +	  contributions of staff and students.

I was reminded at the sprint that I needed to ask about this. My
understanding of the license policy was as per
http://twistedmatrix.com/bugs/issue903 -- ie, that the *only* thing
commiters needed to do was to MIT license their contributions. This is
all that http://twistedmatrix.com/developers/contributing currently
states. Therefore, that was what I'd been getting people who
contributed documentation to agree to, and that was my understanding of
the licencing and copyright of my own contributions as of the date when
the MIT licensing of Twisted began.

If the current policy is that copyright must be consigned to an entity
called "Twisted Matrix Labs", then this policy needs to be confirmed,
restored to the webpage, and the status of all contributions at least
since the website change and probably since the licence change needs to
be confirmed with individual contributors. Also, my own network of
nebulous legal advice from dubious sources suggests that Australian
contributors might want to seek legal advice about how to do copyright
consignment: it was suggested to me that the status of your moral right
to be identified as author needs to be firmly nailed down for the
consignment to have any validity whatsoever.

-Mary