American legalize [clearification]

[Jens M Andreasen <jens-and@dsv.su.se>]

Hi everybody!

I am one of the "lurkers" that refuse to get my mailbox flooded by
various mailinglists and just read the threaded archives once in a
while.  You can reach me at ja@linux.nu

What follows is an excerpt from a private discussion between
warren@cygnus.com and me. I hope it will be useful for all of you
"foreigners" that only knows about american lawyers from television and
soap operaes.

[snip]

So I said:

> >                                       ... I was a bit put off by the
> > american legalize on the webpage you pointed me to. I couldn't figure
> > out what it meant or if at all anything. At first it seemed like I had
> > to sell out my soul in order to contribute anything. Later I have
> > realized that if I just reimplement the underlying datastructure using
> > whatever (cleanroom) technology I see fit, then it is only this java
> > specific implementation that is owned by Cygnus. Not my generally useful
> > bag of tricks.
> 

... and Warren:

> I'm not a big fan of legal stuff myself.  But this is basically the same
> thing that the FSF does (I believe the paperwork is virtually identical
> to theirs).  BTW, as it was explained to me, as the author you still
> retain full rights to the code you contribute for all time; you're just
> granting Cygnus full rights to use and redistribute that particular
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> snapshot.  This is not like a software patent deal, so your soul is
> indeed intact :-).  Also, the paperwork would cover any future
> submissions/snapshots you might wish to make so the paperwork is really
> just a one-time deal.
> 
> > I still don't get the deal with the signature though. Without witnesses
> > you'll not be able to know if this was really signed by me or by a
> > trained monkey? The legal value (in Sweden) would be zero ...
 
> I'm not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV) but this is what the lawyers
> believe is enough to protect us (and again, it is in keeping with what
> the FSF requires signature-wise).
> 
> I guess if someone claims Cygnus violated a copyright, we need
> documentation and a way to reach the signer so we can prove to others
> that we didn't just make up a story about them as part of some coverup.
> Boy, I hate talking about this stuff; it makes me feel like I'm part
> of some Oliver Stone conspiracy theory ;-).
>
> As to whether you are Jens M Andreasen based on the signature, I guess it
> doesn't matter for legal purposes; the point is that *you*, the person
> we are dealing with and who goes by the name Jens M Andreasen, is
> affirming the info on the signed document at the time it is submitted.
> You can change your feelings about open source later on, but the document
> is the proof that you granted us the rights to use the code.


You mentioned patents, right? Here I think it is important for us to
remember that although software patents only apply to a very small
number of countries, Cygnus happens to be based in that one. The
implication is that we ["foreigners"] must have a mindset of working as
if we were actually physically based in the same building as Cygnus.

cu!
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