Submission + - How to be sure code being contributed is legal?
WanderingGhost writes: Suppose you start a free software project and have people from all over the world wanting to contribute (hey, that's good eh?)
How can you tell if they actually have the right to contribute at all? Contributors may live in different countries and work for different companies, and that means different laws and different contractual agreements. Aside from asking the person (I've found that this doens't always work), what else would you do?
And is there some place where you can find all information about IP laws of different countries (for example Japan, India, China, Russia...) just so you can tell what would be the "default holder of copyright" if a work contract says nothing about IP rights?
How can you tell if they actually have the right to contribute at all? Contributors may live in different countries and work for different companies, and that means different laws and different contractual agreements. Aside from asking the person (I've found that this doens't always work), what else would you do?
And is there some place where you can find all information about IP laws of different countries (for example Japan, India, China, Russia...) just so you can tell what would be the "default holder of copyright" if a work contract says nothing about IP rights?
