The unlicense.org initiative is to help software developers waive their copyright and dedicate their work to the public domain ()

Kyle | 4 Sep 2011 20:48

question about contributor copyright waivers

Is it safe to state clearly, either by modifying the text of the Unlicense to include contributors, or by
making a note in a separate location, that anyone who contributes code or documentation to my project
understands that they have agreed to waive their copyrights when they agree to submit their
contribution, or is it still better to collect a waiver of copyright from each individual contributor? I
suppose the waivers could be collected along with individual names in a CONTRIBUTORS file, but is it
really necessary in the days of implied agreement, e.g. "by using this, you agree to the terms and
conditions..." this may seem like a rather silly question, but I really don't have the ability to pay
lawyers in case something goes wrong, so I guess I just need to be sure all my bases are covered in the
simplest way possible. Thanks for any advice.
~Kyle
Sent from my Wishdroid! :)

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Ben Lavender | 9 Sep 2011 21:15

Re: question about contributor copyright waivers

For rdf.rb, we did a GNU-ish 'official agreements from big contributors, don't worry about it for a few lines of fixes'. We made them post the agreements to a mailing list. We got some companies to vaguely sponsor their employees' letters.

Beyond that, nobody ever sued anyone so I doubt anyone can give useful legal advice here.

Ben

On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Kyle <kyle <at> gmx.ca> wrote:

Is it safe to state clearly, either by modifying the text of the Unlicense to include contributors, or by making a note in a separate location, that anyone who contributes code or documentation to my project understands that they have agreed to waive their copyrights when they agree to submit their contribution, or is it still better to collect a waiver of copyright from each individual contributor? I suppose the waivers could be collected along with individual names in a CONTRIBUTORS file, but is it really necessary in the days of implied agreement, e.g. "by using this, you agree to the terms and conditions..." this may seem like a rather silly question, but I really don't have the ability to pay lawyers in case something goes wrong, so I guess I just need to be sure all my bases are covered in the simplest way possible. Thanks for any advice.
~Kyle
Sent from my Wishdroid! :)

--
Ben Lavender | ben <at> dydra.com | http://dydra.com
twitter/github: bhuga | +15047221016

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Kyle | 10 Sep 2011 00:32

Re: question about contributor copyright waivers

OK, well that pretty much answers my question. I can setup a mailing 
list very easily. I was just trying to make contributing as painless for 
the contributor as possible, and I thought an implied waiver would do 
that, but it does seem better to have a mailing list where major 
contributors can post their individual waivers for archival. From your 
project, it looks like the implied waiver should be fine for small 
patches, so I'll likely document that in my policies for contributing 
code. Looks like I should be safe saying something like:

"By contributing code to this project, you agree to waive your 
copyrights and to place your contribution into the public domain. For 
patches consisting of 5 lines of code or more, please post an official 
waiver of copyright to the mailing list at ..."

I would link to something similar to the SQLite waiver that can be 
copied and pasted into the email that the individual major contributor 
would send to the list along with his/her name. Does this cover all my 
bases? It seems strange to live in a time where it is easier to assert 
copyright restrictions than to allow people the freedom to use my code 
without fear. Thanks much for the help.
~Kyle