[tei-council] IPR inherent in TEI markup

[stuart yeates]

It seems to me that we should ask around what other communities in 
similar situations do. It seems likely that someone has already paid 
lawyers $400 an hour to think this through.

In particular there's a license called the Public Domain Dedication and 
License (PDDL) http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/ It seems to me 
that this encapsulates the intent of what I believe we want. Maybe 
something like:

"The TEI tags themselves are released under the Public Domain Dedication 
and License (PDDL) found at: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/"

"The documentation of the TEI tags is embodied in the TEI standard, 
which is released under the GPLv2"

cheers
stuart

On 16/07/11 01:01, Martin Mueller wrote:
> James and others,
>
> This is a useful thread of correspondence to remember.It is very expensive
> to get legal advice: a high-powered IPR lawyer will charge you $400.00 an
> hour in Chicago, and the hours add up very quickly. But it may be that at
> some point we can get some good and free house from the in-house legal
> folks of some of our members.
>
> I take it there is no urgency on this matter, but at some point during the
> next year it might be helpful to have a statement.  Such a statement
> should, I think, come from the Board but reflect discussion by the Board
> and Council.
>
> MM
>
> On 7/15/11 6:50 AM, "James Cummings"<James.Cummings at oucs.ox.ac.uk>  wrote:
>
>>
>> Unfortunately, a case (which involves TEI markup) being
>> considered by our legal services at the moment throws this
>> entirely into doubt.  The GPLv2 license applies only to the
>> Guidelines as a publication, not the actual use of their
>> recommendations and the markup structures that the TEI has
>> invented. A clear and legally sanctioned legalese statement that
>> says "we don't own anything you use the TEI to mark up" would
>> probably be a good idea.
>>
>> To answer Gaby's other question, IPR is expressable in individual
>> TEI customizations or extensions, and the worry might be that a
>> particular customization used by a sub-community might be
>> affected or left open to some malicious legal case.
>>
>> I don't think this should be top priority (and maybe something
>> that should just be punted up to the Board to deal with?) but
>> since I had the conversation I thought I should mention it.
>>
>> -James
>>
>> On 15/07/11 12:38, Gabriel Bodard wrote:
>>> Probably yes, so long as we use it as-written and unmodified. If we
>>> start adding disclaimers and special clauses, that's when we need to be
>>> careful.
>>>
>>> On 2011-07-15 12:23, Lou Burnard wrote:
>>>> Surely these issues are dealt with by our explicit use of the GPLv2?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 15/07/11 12:05, Gabriel Bodard wrote:
>>>>> Not silly at all; sadly a very real concern in this day and age.
>>>>>
>>>>> A further question, which we may want to speak to a lawyer about
>>>>> before
>>>>> making any such addition to the license as James suggestions: Would
>>>>> such
>>>>> a disclaimer, that we do not claim IPR in a text based on it being
>>>>> marked up in TEI, leave the way open for *someone else* to make such a
>>>>> claim of IPR, would could later be used against someone using TEI
>>>>> tags?
>>>>> I know this sounds far-fetched, but again there are unscrupulous
>>>>> bastards out there, and I'd want to be very sure we're not giving too
>>>>> much away with such a disclaimer.
>>>>>
>>>>> G
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2011-07-15 11:40, James Cummings wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I recently had a discussion with one of our licensing and IPR
>>>>>> experts (who will be discussing digital copyright at our Summer
>>>>>> School) who had some questions about TEI licensing because of an
>>>>>> issue being looked at by our legal services.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Far apart from the interesting discussion on whether adding TEI
>>>>>> markup to a text is considered significantly interpretative to
>>>>>> count as developing IPR, he had a question about whether use of
>>>>>> the TEI in specific had any vested rights adhering to the
>>>>>> Consortium.  i.e. if someone uses the TEI to mark something up
>>>>>> does the TEI Consortium have rights in the document based on the
>>>>>> fact that we have designed the structures that are in use.
>>>>>> Clearly given a) that we describe the TEI as a
>>>>>> recommendation/standard and b) that we license the Guideline as
>>>>>> GNU GPLv2 would indicate that we don't want to express any such
>>>>>> claim.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Although I think the TEI-C claiming IPR in any TEI marked up text
>>>>>> is ludicrous, commercial companies have certainly attempt similar
>>>>>> claims in the past (viz MS). I'd propose that on our current page
>>>>>> about licensing we simply include a statement to the effect that:
>>>>>> "The TEI Consortium will not express any claim of IPR in a text
>>>>>> solely because it is marked up in TEI."  or similar.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Silly I know,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -James
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dr James Cummings, InfoDev,
>> Computing Services, University of Oxford
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-- 
Stuart Yeates
Library Technology Services http://www.victoria.ac.nz/library/