More IP questions than answers

[gr8places]

After reading a lot of opinion, I'm in two minds about what
Miro had in mind with their recent moves. My favourite theory
is that the foundation was established in the hope that somebody
with really deep pockets would drop $100M into the foundation
and with effective control Miro would get some sort of spin off.

All speculation aside though, I am curious about the "ownership"
structure of joomla and OSMatters Inc.

Do the current "core team" own joomla?
If a person joins the core team are they then offered a share?

Is there a commercial arm to OS Matters Inc?

What mechanisms are in place to handle a future situation
where most of the current core team has moved on and
the new group decides to walk out on the "owners"?

Will joomla eventually be cleaned of the Miro copyright?

[masterchief]

Hi gr8places (gr8 handle)

They are very good questions, some of which we are still seeking answers on.

Providing a system for good governance and continuity for the project is very important.  How do safe-guard it's longevity through people leaving (for any reason)? How do we ensure that assets like the copyright and the domains are kept in safe hands and cannot be abused in the future?  How do we deal with copyright laws that differ from country to country?  How do we learn from recent events so that we don't make the same mistakes when creating our own organistations?

There are all important and sometimes hard questions to answer, but we are researching them very carefully.  Several other CMS project have offered they advice to us for what went right and what went wrong with their own associations and organisational structures.  I'm actually looking forward to this opportunity - it's a wonderful ethos we have in the Open Source movement.

Anyway, I'm getting all soppy.  It's quite likely that things won't happen overnight, it's possible we might look at staging how the organisation is shaped and this might be done over many, many months and with varying degrees of consultation.  Right now or time is consumed with logistics and getting Joomla! off the ground.  Once we have our development systems back in place we'll turn our attention back on governance issues and work them through.

I don't know that there are any plans for a future commercial arm but it will be interesting to watch the progress of mozzilacorp over time.

For me personally I see Joomla! as planting a million pine seedlings and it's our job to make sure that future forest is available for the use and enjoyment to the 3rd and 4th generation.  That would be a seriously cool legacy to leave.

[gr8places]

Thanks for your thoughtful and considered answer MasterChief.

I had a browse through some information related to the GPL.
It looks like we are sailing in more or less uncharted waters.

Yes, you are free to change and redistribute GPL software,
but what rights does the original author have to say "hang
on that's not my product any more, you can't use my product
name". What rights does the new author have to modify the
product and still call it by the old name?

Maybe I should study law!