[kepler-dev] authorship, copyright issues etc.

[Bertram Ludaescher]

Dear all:

In various contexts several of us have discussed before copyright
issues in the context of open source development.

Specifically, if I remember earlier discussions right, both Ptolemy
and Kepler generally adopt a BSD-style license, retaining copyright
for the authors, while at the same time allowing commercial spin-off.

Also I noted that in Ptolemy, so-called "models" (what we call
"workflows" in Kepler) often prominently list the authors on the
visual rendering (in vergil). 

I assume that the corresponding MOML file list authors in a similar
way as for source code -- after all, a MOML file is just a very
abstract visual program...

For the SEEK folks, who is the author, for example of the GARP
pipeline? Clearly there are the original authors of the GARP algorithm 
to mention. But I guess there should be also a way to credit the
SEEK folks who (sometimes painfully I suppose) re-engineered the
algorithm to make it Kepler ready.

Similar situations apply, e.g., in geoinformatics application,
cheminformatics, bioinformatics.

So my question is: what rules are in place for authorship and
copyright of workflows? My understanding is that in many areas, not
the individual pieces (actors, directors) are the main IP but the way
things are connected up and made into an operational workflow (just as 
there is probably no copyright issue with adding and subtracting
numbers ;-)

Anyways, I just wanted to throw the question out there. I assume that
Kepler authors who put workflows in the Kepler repository list
themselves as authors (e.g. Chad in the case of GARP) plus listing as
authors the original authors from which the algorithm was derived.

Is that so? If not, how else should it be?

Bertram