Board meeting, February 4th, 2003

Attending:

  • Branden Robinson
  • Ean Schuessler (presiding)
  • Ian Jackson
  • M. Drew Streib
  • Manoj Srivastava
  • Martin "Joey" Schulze

Absent with regrets:

  • Wichert Akkerman

Advisors present:

  • Guido van Rossum
  • Martin Michlmayr

Invitees present:

  • Benjamin Mako Hill (contributing member)
  • Bruce Perens (contributing member)
  • David B. Harris (contributing member)
  • David Graham (contributing member)
  • Josip Rodin (contributing member)
  • Lukas Geyer (contributing member)
  • Michael Banck (contributing member)
  • Peter Palfrader (contributing member)
  • Rene Engelhard (contributing member)
  • Rune B. Broberg (contributing member)

Agenda:

  1. Copyright assignment
  2. Status of the membership
  3. Voting period for new board members
  4. On-line donations
  5. Scheduling the next meeting

Recorder: David B. Harris (contributing member)

Copyright assignment

Ean Schuessler asks, should SPI accept copyright assignments, similar to the Free Software Foundation? He suggests the topic be discussed on SPI's mailing lists before any decision is made.

Martin Schulze points out that SPI already holds copyright on various works for the Debian project.

Ian Jackson states that, if SPI accepts other copyright assignments, it may be required to defend those copyrights. SPI may also be liable for any infringement the assigned material may cause.

Ian Jackson suggested that the Secretary begin a discussion on the SPI mailing lists, and prepare a report for the board's next meeting.

The suggestion was accepted as such, and the Secretary will be asked to begin the process upon his return.

Status of the membership

Peter Palfrader states that sixty-five (65) of two hundred and twenty-four (224) contributing members have cast their vote on the new board members' election.

Since the Secretary's call for votes, between five and ten new contributing members have joined.

Voting period for new board members

Ian Jackson moved that the election period be extended another two weeks, to allow more time for contributing members to vote. More effort will be made on the part of the board to ensure that all contributing members are aware of the election.

The motion was accepted unanimously, the new deadline for voting is Friday, 21 Feb 2003, 23:59:59 UTC.

On-line donations

Drew Streib suggests opening a PayPal account, with which to accept donations on-line. This will also provide a means for credit card donations.

Bruce Perens states that PayPal has worked well for the [Global Technology Policy Institute)[http://techp.org/], and that they have collected about 4000 USD.

Drew Streib, Branden Robinson, and Ian Jackson expressed concerns with respect to PayPal's Terms Of Service, as well as PayPal's history.

The Treasurer suggests that SPI use an established, well-known, professional institution.

The discussion will be continued on the general SPI mailing list.

Scheduling the next meeting

Martin Schulze asks that the following meeting take place on Tuesday, March 11th.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 11th, at 19:00 UTC.