I think this is one of the most important responsibilities that the board has (sorting out the contribution process and maintaining records of licenses, etc). A number of projects require every contributor to mail in a signed contributor form (that states the license under which the software is being contributed). Those papers are usually maintained in a vault somewhere.<br>
<br>A more ideal solution would be an electronic signature system where one signs a secure hash of the source code along with a statement of the license terms. If the process is well understood and documented, the records organized and retained, and the public keys of the contributors reasonably verified to be authentic, I imagine one could argue successfully for a judge or jury that the licenses really are as advertised. But, I think I'd still want to get the opinion of a tech savvy lawyer first. And, it might be wise to use both both mechanisms (digital and paper) until there is a consensus that the digital method is on sound legal footing. <br>
<br>- Stephen<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 2:55 PM, Craig Latta <<a href="mailto:craig@netjam.org">craig@netjam.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
Hi Stef--<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> There is no version mentioned, no date.<br>
<br>
</div> There is an Effective Date, so that the agreement applies to the<br>
contributions made by the signer through that date. A list of signers is<br>
available at [1]. The board does not have a list of the Effective Dates;<br>
my expectation is that we will get copies of all the signed agreements,<br>
for our counsel at the Software Freedom Conservancy to retain and for<br>
our own reference.<br>
<br>
It is up to us to decide how to treat contributions made by a<br>
person after their Effective Date. The board has not yet made a final<br>
decision about this. I will bring it up at the next meeting, on 2008-04-02.<br>
<br>
<br>
thanks,<br>
<br>
-C<br>
<br>
[1] <a href="http://netjam.org/squeak/contributors" target="_blank">http://netjam.org/squeak/contributors</a><br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Craig Latta<br>
improvisational musical informaticist<br>
<a href="http://www.netjam.org" target="_blank">www.netjam.org</a><br>
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>