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If you really want to lose some sleep look up partnership law. Everyone who has ever contributed to an open source project _could_ be (in the absence of the pr
by yrro 4y ago
If you really want to lose some sleep look up partnership law.
Everyone who has ever contributed to an open source project _could_ be (in the absence of the project setting up proper legal structures) considered a membership of a general partnership, and thereby become jointly and severally subject to unlimited liability for the actions of the partnership.
(IANAL this is just what I've read online)
- jaywalk 4y agoIANAL either, but I have taken business law courses. And what you said is simply not true. At all.
- jsty 4y agoI think it would be a fairly novel interpretation of "persons carrying on a business in common with a view to profit" required to catch out contributors to an open source project. Outside of a project that takes contributions / donations without a legal entity to receive them and parcels those out amongst the contributors, I can't think of a reasonable situation that would enable such a definition.
- yrro 4y agoSeems unlikely to me too but that's what I've read. If you ask a lawyer "what are the risks of doing X" they'll give you a list, and some will be more likely than others. It's up to the client to decide what level of risk they're happy with. I managed to dig up the mailing list thread where I read about this risk: https://groups.google.com/g/linux.debian.vote/c/Nl-J8h2pO9A/m/npmD0t-jBwAJ https://groups.google.com/g/linux.debian.vote/c/Nl-J8h2pO9A/...; for context, Sam Hartman is a former Debian Project Leader and I assume his opinion is formed by advice from SPI's lawyers.