[Tinyos-alliance] 3-7 notes

[David E. Culler]

Attendees

Phillipe Bonnet
Adam Wolicz
David Culler
Phil Levis
Lama Nachman
Rob Szewczyk
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Background:

Rob asked to provide initial thoughts on potential apache-like source 
license.  Provided general arguments for the approach and specifics on 
Moteiv proposal


Rob
   Moteiv license is Apache-like with copyright held by orginator.
   Motivations
     - contributions might not be seen in larger commuity without 
recognition in end user documentation
     - branding: opportunity to use brand value to drive some coherence
     - standard disclaimer
     - narrowing venue for litigation (new)
     - rights terminate under non-compliance

   Proposal
     - build on NESC doc to generate list of contributors
     - restrict to two licenses: based on Intel BSD-like

   Issue:
    - what constitutes a change
    - substnatial changes constitute additional copyright

Philippe
   - Quite constraining.  More than what had in mind.  Protecting brand 
may be going too far.

Adam
  - for giving credit, but need to be careful how far we go.
     - bug fixing
  - sueing issues may be senssible, but atypical

Phil
  - only allowing two may be a problem. 
  - new BSD and Moteiv apache have very different terms as to how it can 
be used.
       - what happens if there is a mix

Lama
  - agree with premis of credit
  - concern over logistics and approval process
  - how to give credit without creating a lot of complications

Robert
   - what constraints are you concerned about

Philippe
   - reference to copyright holder.  Is it a person or institution.  
Might have to contact many people. 
   -

Credit to individual
Branding limited to TinyOS

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I How large a set of licenses?
  High order bit - Is there a non-BSD version
  Is there a small set of versions

Adam
  - want to have as small a set of licenses as possible to reduce 
potential interactions
Robert
  - the set of BSDs in use has narrowed
Lama
  - will forward Intel approved Apache variant
  - small set is perferable.
  - unclear what we cannot do with BSD only
answer: deal with company X goes off and claims credit for all of TinyOS 
without implementing it

Phil
  - set of licenses should not preclude the use of other licenses

II Are we willing to embark on a potentially adversarial relationship 
with adopters

What barriers to adoption are we willing to consider
  - attribution
  - brand and author recognition
  - obtaining permission

What would it mean to enforce it?
  - Alliance has to do it
  - Any company can do it

Credit vs adoption

Robert: Original copyright owner retains ability to enforce copyright

Phillip
  - avoid adversary relationship
  - likely to discourage adoptions by creating obstacles
  - keep low barriers
  - credit and documentation may be OK if they don't have to invest a 
lot in the process

Phil Levis
  - adversarial relationship should be avoided.  Pay attention to that 
in the wording.
  - can re refine the apache wording

Adam
  - avoid having too high a kind of organizational overhead
  - prefer to have a simple means of approving the use of the brand for 
advertising
  - credits, it needs to be low effort.  Maybe a link to all the 
contributors

Lama
  - need to be very careful
  - everyone benfits from adoption,
  - avoid scaring people off by complicated licensing terms
  - streamlined process could handle this
  - large license set also is a barrier for adoption

Robert
  - generating the list of contribs is a small requirement compared to 
everything else you have to do
  - web site is not enough

David
  - need to be extremely careful
  - balancing act
         - we want to credit where is due
         - we want low barrier to adoption
         - but also want to encourage companies to contribute
  - do we need to have legal teeth to establish a code of ethics in the 
community
       - could we do it with an explicit code of ethics

Adam
  - expectation could be made clearly in licensing
 
Phillipe
  - this is very much related to the IP.


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Agenda for next time
  focus on IP
  will circulate IETF RFC
  Phil Levis willing to prepare short startng point