Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

Posted Jun 8, 2011 22:42 UTC (Wed) by mastro (guest, #72665)
In reply to: Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache by clugstj
Parent article: Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

I hope they're smart enough to accept the donation, recognize that they only have a name while the LibreOffice guys have the source code and offer to donate or license the trademark to then.

Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

Posted Jun 9, 2011 0:27 UTC (Thu) by csigler (subscriber, #1224) [Link] (2 responses)

I think one problem is that Oracle is retaining what I'd term "backstop control" of the project by retaining copyright ownership. Quoting Allen Pulsifer:

"... Oracle has retained ownership of the copyrights, and granted the ASF a license."

I'm *not* a copyright, trademark or licensing expert, but wouldn't this allow Oracle to control to whom and when ASF might transfer any rights of ownership or use? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Clemmitt

Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

Posted Jun 9, 2011 1:58 UTC (Thu) by butlerm (subscriber, #13312) [Link] (1 responses)

The Apache License is a BSD-ish license that is permissive enough that there is no real reason to require copyright assignment from anyone. The normal reason why people ask for copyright assignment is so that they (and only they) can relicense derivatives on any terms they feel like. This is typically how dual licensing is accomplished, one copyleft license for anyone, plus we own the copyright, so we can sell our special sauce version without making source available, but everyone else has to share, etc.

With a permissive license like the Apache License that generally isn't necessary. Anyone can create closed derivatives if they feel that is appropriate, not just the people with the copyright. In many ways a BSD licensed project without copyright assignment is more open than a GPL licensed project with it. The latter always creates a preferred party who can do things that none of the other participants can do.

Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

Posted Jun 9, 2011 8:18 UTC (Thu) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link]

IANAL either, but the really key thing to me was that Oracle is transferring the OpenOffice.org trademark to the ASF. The Apache licence is a very permissive licence, so if the OOo codebase is released under that licence, there is nothing to stop LO from using it. But it does not permit use of trademarks in derived code. However, if the ASF will now own the OOo trademark, what's to stop them allowing LibreOffice to use it -- if, that is, both parties want to? Then wouldn't that be as good as transferring rights to TDF in the first place?