Re: git as an sfc member project

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 12:03:48AM -0700, Tait wrote:

> > The draft agreement is here:
> >   http://peff.net/git-sponsorship-agreement.pdf
> 
> Sorry I'm late to the thread. This agreement brings up one concern for
> me. It would make officially make git a United States project based out
> of New York, and therefore subject to the laws of New York and the United
> States. Among whatever other laws apply, will be export restrictions and
> patent law. I don't know whether any part(s) of git would be a concern
> under those laws (and I haven't needed to care, until now). Is legal
> advice for issues like this part of the services SFC can provide?

I am not sure that joining the SFC is going to make any difference with
respect to those things. Developers and distributors of the software in
the United States were already subject to such laws, and I don't see how
our dealing with the SFC would create any special obligation for those
outside the US. In particular, it seems to me that git as a legal entity
signing this agreement as the SFC (which legally is really just an
agreement between the SFC and a few members of the project) is different
from git as a community of individuals who happen to contribute and
distribute code.  SFC will not own any copyrights, nor take any
responsibility for distribution.

But I am not a lawyer, of course, and yes, this seems like exactly the
sort of thing we can ask them about. So I've cc'd Bradley. :)

-Peff