[Opengc-devel] copyright notes from VTK

[Damion S. <be...@cs...>]

Hi,

This stuff is on the web at http://www.vtk.org/contribute.php but for 
discussion purposes it's worth re-posting here. I am suggesting that 
the following "contribution standards" apply to a future rewrite of 
OpenGC. A large, active, community of developers has judged the 
following standards acceptable, so this is a good starting point...

<snip>

Contributing code to vtk is simple: write good, general-purpose code 
following our coding standards. Make sure that you include our 
copyright in your code. Also make sure the code is compatible with our 
automated Tcl wrapping procedure. Finally, realize that the code you 
contribute can be used in commercial products by anybody (without 
compensation to you), and that contributed code is owned (via 
copyright) by Ken Martin, Will Schroeder, and Bill Lorensen.

See detailed explanations in the following.

Copyright Issues

When you contribute code to vtk, Ken Martin, Will Schroeder, and Bill 
Lorensen own it. We are doing it this way because of logistics issues: 
legal decisions or modifications to the code would become completely 
unworkable if there were mixed copyrights. However, we do want to 
credit and give thanks to those people that make the effort of creating 
code. To do this, modify the standard copyright notice by adding a 
"Thanks:" field that states your name and/or affiliation. See 
vtkEarthSource for an example.

If this is unacceptable to you: then either don't contribute code at 
all, or (optionally) we may set up a contributed code repository that 
we DO NOT maintain, test, or distribute, but DO reference on our web 
site(s).

Commercialization Issues

When you contribute code to vtk, the code may be used in commercial 
products without condition. You will not receive any commercial gain as 
a result of the use of your code in a commercial product (either do we 
for that matter). Only contributed code meeting this condition will be 
accepted.

Obligation to Integrate Code

We often find ourselves in the position of receiving code that meet the 
above conditions, but are unable to integrate it into vtk. This may be 
because the code is not general enough, is judged to require additional 
development, or does not add enough value to vtk.

If you are a contributor affected by a decision to not integrate your 
code into vtk, or delay integration into vtk, we apologize. Please 
recognize that we are struggling to keep the complexity of the system 
at a managable level, and to make sure enough testing is performed to 
distribute a good system.

---------
Damion Shelton
The Open Source Glass Cockpit Project (OpenGC)
Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute
http://www.opengc.org
da...@op...



---------
Damion Shelton
Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute
A408-o Newell Simon Hall
412.268.3866 (office)
412.818.8829 (cell)
412.268.6436 (fax)
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~beowulf
---------
I hope that after I die, people will say of me: "That guy sure owed me 
a lot of money."