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Re: [ontology-summit] founding members meeting' , ownership of 'open ont

To: paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx, "Ontology Summit 2008" <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Rex Brooks" <rexb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Rex Brooks <rexb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 07:57:24 -0700
Message-id: <a06240808c444c7517ef5@[192.168.15.2]>
Hi Paola,    (01)

I'm little bit at a loss over what the issue is here. Having worked 
with Peter for several years, I have to say that he is the single 
most insistent individual I've ever run into with regard to 
scrupulously insisting on IPR that guarantees "openness" in the 
open-source mold. In fact, I have found some of these policies too 
restrictive for some of my associates who insist on not contributing 
any of their work unless or until they can clearly establish that 
such contributions are clearly their own copyrighted work because 
inclusion in a publicly available and "open" resource such as the 
various forums Peter supplies at his own cost, could (in their 
opinion) compromise their copyright by making it viewable.    (02)

Without an IPR policy that protects contributions by placing them 
under an OPEN "Free Software" or "Open Source" (GNU-type) License, 
any contributions not so protected or for which a formal copyright 
has not already been obtained at the personal cost of the 
contributor, all such contributions are easily stolen with no chance 
for redress. Most mailing lists either provide an IPR policy or else 
post a disclaimer that any contributions are the responsibility of 
the contributor, essentially disclaiming any responsibility to 
protect contributors from unattributed and/or unauthorized use of 
their intellectual property. If you check the references linked in 
the IPR statement you can get more thorough information, but this 
approach protects contributions from being hijacked for the purpose 
of establishing patents or copyrights which can then be enforced, 
requiring royalty payments. However, contributors must be aware that 
anyone can use their contributions and build applications that are 
then offered commercially as long as they cite the copyright.    (03)

For my purposes, which are largely non-commercial when I participate 
in Peter's mailing lists or fora, his policies are a benefit because 
such participation is not vulnerable to IPR "poachers" which I can 
assure you are out there just waiting. I have run afoul of this 
before in my own life on other lists  Also, I trust that Peter is 
dedicated to preventing such vulnerability and is not himself 
advancing any private agenda.    (04)

I suspect that this is a misunderstanding, which I hope can be 
successfully resolved soon.    (05)

Cheers,
Rex    (06)

At 3:52 PM -0400 5/2/08, paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>Deborah
>
>all contributions to the Ontolog community todate, are under the
>existing copyright policty, which includes 'right of attribution'  -
>this means nobody can extrapolate knowlege propagated via the list
>withouth duly referencing its source.
>
>This include all discussions, papers and wiki entries relating to Open
>Ontology, (from which the OOR stuff is derived) and Ontology Metadata,
>for example (of which, incidentally I am the author)
>
>Even if the names of the topics are shuffled around a bit, and the
>content of the contribution is desperately being y morphed and
>exploded into bigger picture using awkward linguisting convolutions,
>it is obvious that the OOR  discussions, and  derived artifaces,
>currently being discussed in a privale list, under a separate IPR
>policy, to be
>decided,  originated from those entries done on the list and on the
>wiki, and reference existing copyrighted work (stuff that is not on
>the ontolog list)
>
>So while lack of reference in subsequent developments of this research
>area is unethical (and puzzling) it is also a copyright infringement
>(right of attribution). of pre- existing IPR
>
>So I am afraid ' to be specified soon'  implies, by law,  in
>accordance to existing IPR policies of the forum where the IPR was
>generated in the first place
>
>etc etc etc
>
>pdm
>
>IOn Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 10:46 AM, Deborah MacPherson 
><debmacp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>  I have in my notes here that the OOR was to be licensed under Creative
>  > Commons or opensource.org policy to be specified soon.
>>
>>  Also, the last talk yesterday, includes an overview of MANY policies
>>  especially seen final portion by Mike Dean.
>>
>>  Best Regards,
>>
>>  Deborah
>>
>>
>>  On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 8:42 PM, <paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > Greetings all
>>  >
>>  > It was a pleasure to finally meet everybody at the Summit, and thanks
>>  > again for efforts being put up. The forum is a great resource for all
>>  > of us, and as the community grows it is important that 'active
>>  > community members' take more responsiblity for its development.
>>  > I hope it continues to stay that way.
>>  >
>>  >  I was surprised to learn today about an 'open ontology founders
>>  > meeting' which took place in January
>>  >
>>  >
>> 
>>http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OOR/ConferenceCall_2008_01_23#nid17D9
>>  >
>>  > because I found no reference in my inbox nor in the list archives, to
>>  > any invitation to participate in such meeting.
>>  > Can someone point me to any announcement about that meeting (before it
>>  > took place?)
>>  >
>>  > Specifically on that wiki page, ther is a reference to some not better
>>  > specified IPR being reserved, but no acknowledgment of prior
>>  > work and existing IPR, which is in contradiction of some of the
>>  > principles of our community and forum, and could possibly cause
>>  > conflict
>>  >
>>  > Being an early proponent of 'Open Ontology', both in terms of wording
>>  > and concepts (I have published papers on this forum and elsewhere
>>  > about this work) and having already extracted a set of metadata from
>>  > the framework, which our metadata champion Michael did not know of,
>>  > (while the rest of this community did, as we discussed it extensively
>>  > on this list)  I was particularly surprised to learn that the
>>  > participants to the 2008 summit have not been informed of the pre
>>  > existing , and prior work under the same heading, and related
>>  > pre-existing IPR.
>>  >
>>  > Issues such as 'ownership' and control of 'open ontology' concept and
>>  > derived artifacts should be addressed, before they can be claimed and
>>  > trademarked by related parties.
>>  >
>>  > I would thefore encourage clarification as required, as well as
>>  > acnkowledgment of prior IPR, in order to avoid potential conflicts,
>>  > and some information relating to such new lists where the OOR work is
>>  > being discussed where we can cross reference the contributions made to
>>  > date, so that they can be duly acknowledged by the body of knowledge
>>  > which is being generated.
>>  >
>>  > I would encourage such issues to be addressed and clarified before the
>>  > communique issued, as some of the statements therein contained may
>>  > constitue an infringement of existing copyright, and this forum
>>  > brought up to date on the new OOR list (where to join?) and other
>>  > developments
>>  >
>>  > I look forward to developments
>>  >
>>  > --
>>  > Paola Di Maio
>>  > School of IT
>>  > www.mfu.ac.th
>>  > *********************************************
>>  >
>>  >
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>
>
>
>--
>Paola Di Maio
>School of IT
>www.mfu.ac.th
>*********************************************    (07)


-- 
Rex Brooks
President, CEO
Starbourne Communications Design
GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison
Berkeley, CA 94702
Tel: 510-898-0670    (08)

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