2017-10-13 10:20:26 +00:00
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2020-04-15 09:46:59 +00:00
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2017-10-13 10:20:26 +00:00
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<title>FSFE presents modernised Fiduciary Licensing Agreement 2.0</title>
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<h1>FSFE presents modernised Fiduciary Licensing Agreement 2.0</h1>
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<p newsteaser="yes">The FSFE and ContributorAgreements.org proudly present
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the revised and updated <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/fla.en.html">Fiduciary Licence Agreement
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2.0</a> (FLA-2.0) - a next-generation contributor agreement that makes sure
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the contributed software always remains Free Software.</p>
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<p>The FSFE acknowledges that the licensing of code has been well served
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by Free Software licences such as the GPL, Apache, BSD, and MPL families.
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However, managing rights and content within a project over long periods
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of time is still a complex issue.</p>
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<p>To fix this the FSFE with the help of <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/fla.en.html#authors">knowledgeable experts</a>
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drafted the Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA) as early as 2002. The FLA
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is a well-balanced contributor agreement, which gives the trustee, responsible
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for managing the rights within a Free Software project, power and
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responsibility to make sure the contributed software always remains free
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and open. This way the project, together with all the respective contributors,
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are protected against any misuse of power by a new copyright holder.</p>
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<p>The way this works under the FLA is that developers assign an exclusive
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licence to the trustee (usually a foundation or company, under whose auspices
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the software lies) and in return they receive a non-exclusive licence
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of the same extent, as well as a legally binding promise that the code
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they contributed will forever remain Free Software.</p>
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<p>In the last decade, the world of IT has changed quite a bit and,
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apart from copyright, patents and trade marks have become a serious concern
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for Free Software projects.</p>
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<p>With the last review in 2007, the FLA (version 1.2) was long due an
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update. So we are delighted to finally unveil the FLA-2.0 – a much improved
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and modernised version.</p>
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<p>The biggest improvements are that the FLA-2.0 now also covers patents
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and enables more practical licensing options directed towards third
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parties – including referencing to an external licensing policy. In addition,
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the new wording is much improved both in its compatibility with more
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jurisdictions as well as being easier for everybody to understand and
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apply.</p>
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<p>Furthermore, we have joined forces with <a href="http://contributoragreements.org/about.html">ContributorAgreements.org</a>
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and integrated the FLA-2.0 into its Copyright Licensing Agreement (CLA)
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chooser/generator, in order to make the use of the FLA easier both for
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projects and for developers. As a side-effect, all CLA on ContributorAgreements.org
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have been updated as well, following some of the improvements from the FLA.</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>As is often in FOSS and life, we are merely standing on
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the shoulders of giants. The current update – while itself taking several
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industrious years of research and analysis, culminating in a master's thesis
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– would not have been possible without the authors of the original FLA,
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as well as a great deal of legal research which was the basis for the
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ContributorAgreements.org. The sheer community knowledge aggregated in
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the FLA-2.0 makes me confident that it is more relevant and useful today
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as ever before.</p>
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<p>says Matija Šuklje, former FSFE's Legal Coordinator and the main
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driving force behind the FLA update.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The revised FLA-2.0 is an outcome of a longstanding and
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scrupulous collaboration between the FSFE and ContributorAgreements.org.
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We are pleased to see that collaboration to bear fruits in the shape of
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the FLA-2.0. We hope that the new FLA will provide developers and Free
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Software projects with more clarity, while retaining the spirit of the
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original version.</p>
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<p>says Polina Malaja, the FSFE’s Legal Coordinator</p>
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<p>We are thrilled to partner with FSFE and to see the new
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FLA-2.0 go live hand in hand with a new version of our set of standardised
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contributor agreements. FSFE's passion and especially Matija Šuklje's
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dedication to modernising the FLA has enabled us to further revise and
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refine our agreement chooser and we are especially delighted to offer
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the new FLA-2.0 as one possible agreement to be chosen out different
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options available at <a href="www.contributoragreements.org">contributoragreements.org</a>
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</p>
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<p>says Catharina Maracke, Team Lead at ContributorAgreements.org</p>
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<p>KDE e.V. is the biggest user of the FLA and we are delighted
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to see this new version released. As a global project we especially appreciate
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the effort to make it applicable to more jurisdictions and easier to
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understand for our contributors.</p>
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<p>says Lydia Pintscher, President of KDE e.V.</p>
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</blockquote>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>front-page</tag>
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<tag content="FLA">fla</tag>
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<tag content="Legal">legal</tag>
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<tag content="Licensing">licensing</tag>
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</tags>
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</html>
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