[oi-dev] Copyright for contributors - not in files, OI branded zones, binary compatibility

[Garrett D'Amore]

On Jul 22, 2013, at 9:48 AM, Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru> wrote:

> On 2013-07-22 17:59, Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>> 
>> On Jul 22, 2013, at 8:57 AM, Alan Coopersmith <alan.coopersmith at oracle.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 07/22/13 07:30 AM, Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>>>> unless it had explicit approval to do so from any joint contributors.
>>> 
>>> Remember the terms of the Sun Contributor Agreement granted Sun co-ownership
>>> and the right to release the code under any license of Sun's choosing, such
>>> as a proprietary license in any Solaris 10 backport.
>> 
>> Oh right.  The SCA.  Damn, forgot about that!
> 
> Would I be wrong to assume that this was in place for OpenSolaris code
> (and indeed Oracle closed up their Solaris), while the new illumos
> contributors did not sign an SCA with Sun and thus are not subject to
> its terms? Did the (ex-)Sun/Oracle employees, including those currently
> active in illumos community, sign it? Even if yes, does it hold valid
> for post-split codebase?

I think this needs a lawyer to answer.  My feeling is that even for those of who did sign the SCA (I did), I think it would be difficult for Oracle to state that contributions to illumos constitute contributions to OpenSolaris and are therefore subject to the SCA.  If they did, I'd be willing to go to court to fight that.

	- Garrett