Xfce Foundation status

[Auke Kok]

On 10/17/2010 07:40 AM, Jannis Pohlmann wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:38:42 +0200
> Hungerburg<pch13 at myzel.net>  wrote:
>
>> Am 2010-10-17 00:04, schrieb Jannis Pohlmann:
>>
>>> Yes, copyright assignment is something that we will discuss in the
>>> future. However, it's an independent issue as it is not required to
>>> be included in the articles of association.
>>
>> I am not a lawyer (just an xfce user with a general interest in the
>> issues raised): I have the firm conviction, that copyright assignment
>> is not possible in Germany and most other european jurisdictions, the
>> way this can be done in the US. The "Urheberrecht" is unalienable.
>
> I think copyright assignment is legally possible in Germany. The KDE
> e.V. has a so-called Fiduciary Licensing Agreement which allows
> developers to assign their copyrights to the KDE project:
>
>    http://ev.kde.org/rules/fla.php
>
>> If you want to engage in that, as it creates foundation assets, more
>> liabilities against (non-) members, its something the statutes
>> *should* advertise, both a goal and a means of reaching its goals.
>
> The articles of association should only contain basic stuff. Every
> change of this document requires paperwork and communication with
> the government. We won't include the exact annual membership fee for
> instance, in order to remain flexible and be able to change this to
> anything we want without having to update our e.V. registration. (Side
> note: there will be NO membership fee anyway, so no worries ;))


I'm actually pretty strongly against any form of copyright assignment. 
It creates an atmosphere where works that have their copyright 
transferred are treated differently than other works, and this is 
detrimental to all Open Source software.

Second, we can skip this part and if people really insist on this, add 
this to the portfolio of the foundation at a later stage if there's a 
demand/need for it.

Auke