[Discussion] Bylaws Draft 2 Available!

[Tomas L. Byrnes]

I think we need more clarity as to what the position on patents will be, given that you are planning on GPLv3. Section 11 of the GPLv3 only requires licensing the patent in connection with the contributed Copyright, but given that you are assigning Copyright, you need to be clear how you handle any Patents practiced in the Copyrighted code. 

Clearly, the simplest case is the typical one envisioned in the GPLv3: A contributor contributes Copyright, and as part of that, grants a patent license under Section 11, para 3, of the GPLv3 "Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contents of its contributor version."

Requiring assignment of patents is likely to be problematic, but there may be cases where contributors would like to do so, in which case there needs to be a way to address how a contributor is reverse licensed for their contributed patent. There also should be some discussion of the status of the contributed patent, as patents that are still under review may encumber OISF with additional costs if contributed, or create liability if the contributor grants a license to or assigns a Patent, some of whose claims, which claims are practiced in the code, turn out to be part of a prior, valid, patent (and thus the code infringes the IP of a non-contributor). This latter piece is a common problem with even GPLv2, an example being the MS FAT32 patent, which all GPL code that can read and write FAT infringes.

We may also be severely limiting the reach of the project by using GPLv3, which is not exactly popular.

Personally, I'm more comfortable with GPLv2. If it's good enough for Linux.....

There should be some language about how a license is chosen, and process for appeal.

Also, there needs to be definition of a quorum for all votes.

The rest of it looks fine.

YMMV, IMNSHO, etc etc (think Maurice in "Madagascar" as he introduces King Julian).


--
Tomas L. Byrnes
ByrneIT
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: discussion-bounces at openinfosecfoundation.org [mailto:discussion-
>bounces at openinfosecfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Matt Jonkman
>Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 7:41 AM
>To: oisf-announce at openinfosecfoundation.org;
>discussion at openinfosecfoundation.org
>Subject: [Discussion] Bylaws Draft 2 Available!
>
>Thanks to everyone who commented on the existing Bylaws draft. We've
>made some changes to suit the comments and concerns. The major change
>being that contributors to the project retain their copyright of code or
>ideas. This was discussed on the lists and makes a lot of sense, and we
>hope will satisfy both our individual contributors as well as the
>organizations that intend to contribute.
>
>
>The latest (and lets hope final!) draft is available here:
>http://www.openinfosecfoundation.org/bylaws_draft_v0.2.txt
>
>
>We welcome further comment good or bad!
>
>
>The Open Information Security Foundation
>
>
>
>--
>--------------------------------------------
>Matthew Jonkman
>Emerging Threats
>Phone 765-429-0398
>Fax 312-264-0205
>http://www.emergingthreats.net
>--------------------------------------------
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