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| author | Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com> | 2023-05-17 09:51:53 +0200 |
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| committer | Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com> | 2023-05-17 09:51:53 +0200 |
| commit | ef5bef319231ba17897526be897a05b32961a9cc (patch) | |
| tree | 013b68e9f9970a56e3f79c94534117b08dc5f351 | |
| parent | aa216b750fe2a09d948090081ddcf94e7812a4a9 (diff) | |
| download | writefreesoftware.org-ef5bef319231ba17897526be897a05b32961a9cc.tar.xz | |
Managing copyright ownership
| -rw-r--r-- | content/learn/four-freedoms.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | content/learn/participate/choose-a-license.md | 6 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | content/learn/participate/copyright-ownership.md | 74 |
3 files changed, 78 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/content/learn/four-freedoms.md b/content/learn/four-freedoms.md index 9a8d4e0..17e5632 100644 --- a/content/learn/four-freedoms.md +++ b/content/learn/four-freedoms.md @@ -69,5 +69,3 @@ source code, and the people you share it with can study, improve, and share it right back with you. This is the foundation of the **Free Software Movement**: a global community of software enthusiasts sharing and improving software together. - -{{< button "/learn/licenses" "Next: Free software licenses" "next-button" >}} diff --git a/content/learn/participate/choose-a-license.md b/content/learn/participate/choose-a-license.md index bc2e752..15de87e 100644 --- a/content/learn/participate/choose-a-license.md +++ b/content/learn/participate/choose-a-license.md @@ -5,8 +5,10 @@ weight: 3 Choosing a license is an important part of publishing your free software projects. There are many to choose from, and each has different trade-offs and -implications for your project's future. It can be difficult to change the -license later, so you should consider it carefully at the start. +implications for your project's future. It can be difficult to [change the +license later], so you should consider it carefully at the start. + +[change the license later]: /learn/participate/copyright-ownership/#changing-a-projects-license Here are a few widely used free software licenses we recommend, and why you might choose them. diff --git a/content/learn/participate/copyright-ownership.md b/content/learn/participate/copyright-ownership.md index 53598e9..3a7bbe4 100644 --- a/content/learn/participate/copyright-ownership.md +++ b/content/learn/participate/copyright-ownership.md @@ -2,3 +2,77 @@ title: Managing copyright ownership weight: 90 --- + +The nature of copyright ownership in free software bears clarifying. In the +absence of a Contributor License Agreement or similar document (a practice we +[strongly recommend against][0]), how do free software developers and publishers +manage the legal rights associated with the software's copyright? + +[0]: /learn/participate/contribute/#regarding-contributor-license-agreements + +## Who owns a free software project? + +When you contribute to a free software project, if you do not assign your +copyright to someone else, you retain ownership over the intellectual property +rights associated with your contribution. Your changes are then *licensed* to +everyone else, including the other copyright holders, under the same terms as +the license the project was distributed under in the first place. + +As such, in most cases, the copyright for any free software project is held in +aggregate by all of the people who have contributed intellectual property to it, +who license it to users, and each other, with a [free software license][1]. + +[1]: /learn/licenses/ + +## Establishing provenance + +It may be desirable for some projects, particularly commercial projects, to +formally establish the following for each contribution: + +1. The contributor owns the copyright for their contribution, or is authorized + by the copyright holder to use it +2. The contributor agrees to license their copyright under the terms of the + project license + +If it is desirable for your project to formally establish provenance in this +manner, we recommend the use of the [Developer Certificate of Origin][2]. Most +projects facilitate this by asking authors to "sign-off" on their contributions. +The [Git][3] version control system provides a means of indicating that a given +contribution has been signed-off on with the "[git commit -s][4]" flag. + +[2]: https://developercertificate.org/ +[3]: https://git-scm.com/ +[4]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#Documentation/git-commit.txt--s + +## Changing a project's license + +You may at some point wish to change your project's license. + +[permissive license]: /learn/participate/choose-a-license/#permissive-licenses +[copyleft license]: /learn/participate/choose-a-license/#copyleft-licenses + +If the project is licensed with a [permissive license], generally speaking it +is possible to sublicense the original project with a new license, and applying +the new license to future changes. You will still have to comply with the +original license terms, such as attribution, but future changes may be licensed +under different terms. In this sense, changing the license is similar to +starting a new project and incorporating the original codebase into it. + +However, if the project is licensed with a [copyleft license], this is more +difficult -- often impossible. This is an intended trait of copyleft licenses: +it is necessary in order to prevent the project from being incorporated into +non-free software. You cannot generally sublicense a copyleft project in the +same way you can license a permissive project. + +It is possible to change the license of a copyleft project, but you must either +<nobr>**(a)** secure the</nobr> permission of all copyright holders, or +<nobr>**(b)** rewrite their contributions</nobr>. This approach is also +appropriate if you want to change a permissive license without being subject to +its original terms (such as attribution), but this is usually not worth the +effort considering the relatively non-onerous terms of permissive licenses. + +It is for this reason that holding the copyright in aggregate among the +contributors, rather than assigning copyright to a single entity, is recommended +for copyleft projects: it strengthens the long-term security of the project's +free software status by making it more difficult to change it to a non-free +license. |
