are we being honest about legal resources?

Bruce Perens bruce at perens.com
Wed Mar 12 16:39:24 UTC 2008


Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>> It's pretty clear that there are now two camps that are not 
>> particularly interested in each other's project, which hasn't really 
>> been the case with SPI until recently.
> This really isn't true at all. You should consider that at least 4 of 
> the board members are not "Debian" people, although they are involved 
> with Debian. (I was firmly reminded of this on a chat with Jimmy).
What made me think that was the case was this statement from Josh Berkus:
 > The rest of the PostgreSQL people stopped reading the "Copyright 
issues" thread several days ago.

>> but we weren't "The Debian Company".
> And?
This is in regard to "The PostgreSQL Company", of course. I saw an 
identification of a block of the board as "the PostgreSQL people" plus 
the commercial interest, I found it disquieting and felt I should 
register that with you. I don't suggest an action item.

But this is getting very far from the reason I opened this dialogue. 
Which is that I perceive that Open Source projects - not just Debian - 
block themselves due to an IMO naive interpretation of the implications 
of the multiple copyright holder problem. I simply did not want SPI to 
contribute to Debian's continuing to block itself on this issue by 
repeating the (IMO) naive interpretation to Debian, and do not otherwise 
see a need to force the issue on Debian.

Regarding my concern with legal issues, it has been correctly pointed 
out that I have not been called to the bar. I have presented at an 
American Bar Association conference, and have keynoted legal conferences 
operated by U. Washington, and Olswang (London), the last in November. 
This is because I work with attorneys on the legal issues of Open 
Source, both as an advisor to attorneys and their customers, and an 
expert witness. So, I do consider this particular problem a domain in 
which I can legitimately work - always with the cooperation of an attorney.

And although I want to solve the global problem, I am only concerned 
that Debian is properly aware of its options and am willing to leave it 
at that. I wasn't trying to represent Debian, and didn't appreciate 
Ian's ad-hominem.

    Thanks

    Bruce


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