Guidelines for Software Contributions to International Characters

International Characters follows the policies described below for in-licensing contributions and for out-licensing open source software. When distributing actual software, International Characters applies the license terms of the open source licenses identified below, namely the Academic Free License (AFL 3.0, www.rosenlaw.com/AFL3.0.htm) and the Open Software License (OSL 3.0, www.rosenlaw.com/OSL3.0.htm).

International Characters believes that the authors of computer software should retain ownership of their copyrights and patents for their own purposes. That is why we ask only that contributors *license* their software to us under the Academic Free License (AFL 3.0), not that they assign or transfer any other rights to our company. Contributors retain their intellectual property rights for any other purposes they wish, while International Characters will be licensed to use those contributions for its larger open source projects and commercial products.

Here's the form of notice that authors and contributors should place near the beginning of the source code of their contributions:

   Copyright (C) 20xx author-name
   Licensed to International Characters Inc.
             under the Academic Free License version 3.0.
  

If there are multiple authors or owners of a contribution, list them all in one copyright notice to indicate a joint work, or identify specific portions of the contribution with individual copyright notices at appropriate places in the source code. Change "20xx" to the year the contribution was written. Add other licensing or additional notices to the source code if appropriate.

International Characters intends to collect contributions under AFL 3.0 (and to make its own contributions), and to distribute the resulting software under the Open Software License (OSL 3.0) and commercial licenses. Open source distribution may be coordinated through COSTAR (costar.sfu.ca) or other distribution sites.

Here's the notice that International Characters will place at the beginning of its distributed source code including contributions:

   Copyright (C) 20xx International Characters Inc.
   Licensed to the public under the Open Software License version 3.0. 
   Patents pending in Canada, the United States, and other countries.
   International Characters is a trademark of International Characters Inc.
   Commercial software licenses are also available.
         Contact info@international-characters.com.
   For further information see www.international-characters.com.
 

We will not remove the subsidiary copyright notices of contributors from source code. In that way, the source code will contain a full record of claimed authorship of the software as it is written and collected.

In some cases, International Characters may distribute open source software under licenses other than OSL 3.0. In all cases, contributions will remain subject to the terms of AFL 3.0 under which they are in-licensed to International Characters.

This Contribution policy is entirely independent of the International Characters Covenant Not To Assert because the Covenant deals only with IC's patents and not its copyrights. (The Covenant is described separately; see www.rosenlaw.com/IC-Business-Model.pdf.) The AFL 3.0 and OSL 3.0 licenses set terms for making copies and derivative works of International Characters' copyrighted software and, solely to the extent that IC's or contributors' patent claims are embodied in that specific IC-distributed software, grant a patent license for those claims when used in copies and derivative works. Contrast section 2 of AFL/OSL 3.0 with the Covenant. Only some of IC's patent claims are licensed under the OSL 3.0 license, but all of IC's patents are subject to the Covenant.

More intimate business relationships are also desirable. Contributors who are interested in partnering with International Characters for software development and commercial software distribution, and who want to participate in our business model, are invited to contact us at info@international-characters.com.