Re: [Fsfe-uk] Funding Open Source

[Paul]

Hi,

> One of the goals I have for the AFSP is for it to undertake funded/sponsored
> projects. The intention is that a project would generate a proper proposal
> for the sponsor detailing timescales, resource requirements, the amount of
> funding required etc. and, if necessary, act as employer for project members
> during its lifetime.

This sounds ideal and definately the way forward. Question is, with
Linux developers spread over many miles (for Scribus, Franz is in
Germany, Peter in the US and I'm in the UK), how will you be able to
fund it (I'm talking more the logistics involved with tax - or would
people be expected to be classed as self employed but grant maintained
[if you see what I mean])?

> Obviously this requires the project members to act accordingly e.g. deliver
> on time, follow the project plan etc. Whether this is too much to expect of
> your average free software developer remains to be seen but with the demands
> imposed by the likes of upcoming software patents and IP claims etc., I can
> see that free software developers will have to adapt to new working methods
> anyway.

IP and the licence would definately be a problem, especially with so few
companies actually understanding fully the GPL, having been fed so much
FUD by the big companies over it over the years.

In normal circumstances, the IP and copyright and licencing conditions
would become those of the person paying the money. However, in free
software, the IP and copyright are normally those of the author(s) and
licenced how they see fit (typically, GPL or LGPL). It is definately a
difficult situation.

There is also then the legalities. For instance, for Rosegarden, I did a
lot of reverse engineering on the Sibelius file format and for Scribus,
the same with Quark, PageMaker 5, 5.5 and 6 as well as hacked around
with the single file format of Impression files and Acorn DTP (which is
available from GSM [IIRC] commercially, but for PCs).

I was not able to implement them for a variety of reasons, the main one
was that as the code was as a result of breaking the original licence
conditions, it would make the derived code a threat to the package.

As to the legality of this, I don't know - as Scribus (and Rosegarden)
are free and all work done on them is in spare time, no-one has the
money to check out if the incorporation of the derived code would cause
issues.

It certainly is a minefield, but I'm sure the obstacles can be shoved
out of the way and this really worthwhile project pushed forward. Good
luck Neil :-)

TTFN

Paul
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