[odf-discuss] Abiword gets requests for OOXML, not ODF

[Simon Phipps]

On May 18, 2008, at 06:13, marbux wrote:
>
> The contributor's Joint Copyright Assignment is rather plain in  
> bestowing the code commitment decision to Sun:
>
> "1. Contributor owns, and has sufficient rights to contribute, all  
> source code and related material intended to be compiled or  
> integrated with the source code for the OpenOffice.org open source  
> product (the "Contribution") which Contributor has ever delivered,  
> *and Sun has accepted, for incorporation* into the technology made  
> available under the OpenOffice.org open source project."
>
> The new SCA contributors' agreement is similar.
>
> What am I missing?

You're missing that the point of the clause you cite is actually to  
ensure that the copyright assignment can only apply to work  
successfully committed to the version control system by the  
committer.  The code commit decision is the responsibility of the  
contributor. Sun accepts such contributions by virtue of giving the  
contributor commit access.

Without the clause you cite, the scope of the assignment would be "all  
work anywhere", which would be completely unacceptable to everyone.  
For example, the good folks at Novell have signed the SCA, but are  
still free to create software around OO.o independently of Sun because  
they choose not to contribute that work and the clause you cite  
ensures that the SCA does not apply to it.

S.