[jdev] JOSL 1.1?

[Peter Saint-Andre]

I had an interesting conversation today with a longtime Jabber developer
about a project he might start. To avoid the confusion of multiple code
owners, he asked me if he could assign the code to the JSF. After a bit of
back and forth, I realized that he doesn't want the JSF to develop the
code or endorse the project -- all he wants the JSF to do is act as a
trusted third party for the code: in essence, be what Larry Lessig
calls an "intellectual property conservancy" (which is what the JSF does
today for protocols). The FSF does this for GPL'd code but the FSF does
not necessarily have the resources to defend or care about the interests
of Jabber developers, as the JSF would. This got me to thinking: would
developers be interested in having the JSF function as a trusted third
party for code? If so, it might make sense to develop JOSL 1.1 to cover
such code, with the JSF as the licensor (JOSL 1.0 says Jabber Inc. is the
licensor but that is a confusing historical artifact). If developers like
this idea, I will work to develop a JOSL 1.1 license.

Thoughts?

Peter