fenics team mailing list archive

[Anders Logg <logg@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 09:52:21AM -0800, Johan Hake wrote:
> Hello!
>
> UCSD is not willing to sign the consent statement about GPL 3...
>
> From the answer I got:
>
>   LGPL incorporates GPL 3, and that is the problem. Earlier versions of the
>   GPL did not deal in patent rights, while Version 3 does. It would commit a
>   license to the entire UC patent estate, whether the inventors were an
>   informed participant or not. I would need to consult further with UC General
>   Counsel for a detailed answer, but the spirit is that the license
>   overreaches in its commitments to patent rights beyond what the university
>   is willing to do.

That seems strange. So UCSD will want to retain the right to sue users
of DOLFIN if you should happen to add code to DOLFIN that infringes on
some patent held by UCSD?

> Are there any others that have got a similare answer?

No problems so far. Here's what we have so far:

  http://www.fenicsproject.org/pub/copyright/authors/
  http://www.fenicsproject.org/pub/copyright/institutions/

--
Anders


> Johan
>
> On Tuesday February 1 2011 08:44:01 you wrote:
> > Dear contributors to the FEniCS Project,
> >
> > As discussed earlier on the mailing list, we are going to collect
> > copyright consent forms for all material produced by the FEniCS
> > Project.
> >
> > We do this for two reasons:
> >
> > 1. Relicensing of all software under the GNU LGPL v3 (or later).
> >
> > 2. As a protection against authors and/or employers that may want to
> > revoke code contributed to the FEniCS Project in the future.
> >
> > What we need from you is to download the following two forms:
> >
> >   Author consent form
> >   Institution consent form
> >
> > from http://www.fenicsproject.org/pub/copyright/forms/
> >
> > Then sign and send the forms (by regular mail) to
> >
> >   Johannes Ring
> >   Simula Research Laboratory
> >   PO Box 134
> >   1325 Lysaker
> >   Norway
> >
> > Johannes will administer the collection of the forms. Scanned copies
> > of all signed forms will be made available on the FEniCS web site.
> >
> > Note that only one Institution consent form needs to be signed for
> > each institution (if there are multiple authors employed by the same
> > institution).
> >
> > We would like to have the forms as soon as possible, preferrably
> > within 2 weeks (Feb 15) so that we have time to relicense all the
> > software for the upcoming release of FEniCS 1.0 (in March).
> >
> > Direct any questions to me or to the mailing list.
> >