Mistaken copyrights

[Don Brown <do...@gmail.com>]

In the WebWork2 podling, we have several files that contain a copyright
header naming the file as belonging to the ePlus corporation.  Turns out,
this copyright was mistakenly applied due a developer's mistaken IDEA
configuration, which was set to add that copyright to every new file.  That
developer, Jason Carriera, is one of the WebWork 2 project leaders and now
part of the podling.

What can we do to resolve this?  Could it be as simple as Jason removing the
copyright that shouldn't be there in the first place?  Does ePlus need to
file a code grant for the two files?  What about a CCLA?  If one or both are
filed, can we replace the copyright with an Apache copyright?

TIA,

Don

Re: Mistaken copyrights

[Cliff Schmidt <cl...@gmail.com>]

On 4/5/06, Don Brown <do...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In the WebWork2 podling, we have several files that contain a copyright
> header naming the file as belonging to the ePlus corporation.  Turns out,
> this copyright was mistakenly applied due a developer's mistaken IDEA
> configuration, which was set to add that copyright to every new file.  That
> developer, Jason Carriera, is one of the WebWork 2 project leaders and now
> part of the podling.
>
> What can we do to resolve this?  Could it be as simple as Jason removing the
> copyright that shouldn't be there in the first place?  Does ePlus need to
> file a code grant for the two files?  What about a CCLA?  If one or both are
> filed, can we replace the copyright with an Apache copyright?

ePlus should sign a cCLA if their IP will be regularly contributed to
an Apache project.  If there are committers on the project who are
ePlus employees, it's likely that their contributions are
work-for-hire, meaning that it's not their IP to license to Apache --
so we need an ePlus cCLA, in addition to the committer's iCLA.

If ePlus has not signed a cCLA yet, but there is any sort of
significant code within the Apache project that belongs to them, we
should ask them for a Software Grant (CLAs do not cover past
contributions).

If there is code in an Apache project contributed under a (c/i)CLA
that mistakenly has a copyright header naming an entity that never
owned the code (and we are sure about this), we should just fix it
ourselves.

If there is code in an Apache project contributed under a (c/i)CLA
that has a copyright header that names an entity that does own a
particular contribution, but we want to replace the source header with
our standard header representing the collective work of the entire
project, then we should make sure the owner understands our header
policy and move their copyright header to the NOTICE file (e.g. "This
product includes contributions that are Copyright 2006 {IP-OWNER}.").

For any third-party code (code that was developed and distributed
elsewhere, but that we just include within our products, based on the
accepted accompanying open source license) that includes a copyright
header in its source files or attached to a binary file, we should not
change or remove the copyright header at all.

Hope that covers all possibilities.

Cliff

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RE: Mistaken copyrights

["Noel J. Bergman" <no...@devtech.com>]

Don Brown wrote:
> Noel J. Bergman wrote:
> > To be clear, are you indicating that the copyright notice is simply
> > entirely false, the notice was erroneously placed, and that the
> > named entity has no copyright on the code?

> That is my understanding, yes.  Simply a misconfiguration of IDEA.

Then the intuitive thing to do, which Cliff says is legally correct, would
be to simply correct the copyright notices, with a suitable comment in the
commit log.

	--- Noel


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Re: Mistaken copyrights

[Don Brown <do...@gmail.com>]

That is my understanding, yes.  Simply a misconfiguration of IDEA.

Don

On 4/5/06, Noel J. Bergman <no...@devtech.com> wrote:
>
> Don,
>
> To be clear, are you indicating that the copyright notice is simply
> entirely
> false, the notice was erroneously placed, and that the named entity has no
> copyright on the code?
>
>         --- Noel
>
>
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>

RE: Mistaken copyrights

["Noel J. Bergman" <no...@devtech.com>]

Don,

To be clear, are you indicating that the copyright notice is simply entirely
false, the notice was erroneously placed, and that the named entity has no
copyright on the code?

	--- Noel


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