Legal Issues with CrisisCommons and CrisisCamp Haiti
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Contents |
Overview
Overview: The purpose of this project is to identify and address legal issues that will arise from the operations of CrisisCommons and the various CrisisCamps. Some areas of exploration include intellectual property and the proper use of CrisisCommons work product, privacy of users of our applications, and governance of CrisisCommons.
Status
We have an immigration lawyer volunteer to help and provide advice regarding the process of getting kids out of the country and get through paperwork.
Starting to recruit lawyers and catalog and inventory their skill sets.
Will need to catalog the legal issues and start project management of the projects to connect resources to the issues.
1/19/2010: Held a conference to call to kick off legal issues. Recruitment of lawyers continues. Working on a list of projects. We have invitations to Google Wave for collaboration. Working on inventorying what open source code has been used for our services, identifying the applicable licenses to that code, and making sure we understand the terms of those licenses.
1/20/2010: Recruiting process is continuing. Working on organizational issues through phone calls and emails.
1/21/2010: We held a conference call to discuss open source and contract issues. Claire Wudowsky is taking the lead. Antone Johnson is helping.
1/22/2010: We held a conference call to discuss governance issues. Gene Takagi led that discussion. On the same call, we had further discussions about open source contract issues.
1/23/2010: We are supporting the rollout of Haitian Voices. A new volunteer, privacy lawyer Christina Gagnier, is providing that support, with the assistance of Antone Johnson.
1/24/2010: Christina Gagnier completed the Haitian Voices privacy policy and terms of service.
1/25/2010: The Haitian Voices privacy policy and terms of service went live.
1/26/2010: Alex Kozak to begin a new project to discuss how a Creative Commons philosophy and approach can facilitate crisis response. He will report to Steve Wu and coordinate with Claire Wudowsky on further recommendations. We started discussions with the American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section and hope to have volunteer assistance from that group. The ABA as a whole may be interested in providing resources.
1/27/2010: We are working at determining where all the projects are in terms of needing our assistance in the area of agreements. Antone Johnson is leading this effort. We hope to provide proactive assistance to project leads. In addition, Claire Wudowsky will take on responsibility for trademark law issues for the moment as well as open source.
1/28/2010: We are setting up more work on privacy. We are getting our arms around all of the projects and the support they need.
1/29/2010: Work on open source issues. Putting together a chart to show the status of all projects and needed support.
1/30/2010: We are looking at the need for terms of service for various CC services completed.
2/3/2010: We are reviewing various items of code and looking at licenses governing such code.
2/5/2010: Working on further recruiting of legal assistance.
2/6/2010: Consideration of some governance issues, and long-term governance planning.
2/8/2010: Renewed consideration of governance issues and long-term plans.
2/9/2010: We are reviewing terms of service governing some of the things we are doing. We are continuing recruiting efforts for additional legal assistance.
2/12/2010: Terrific all-hands conference call for the legal team and governance team. We are in the process of seeking additional assistance through our contacts. Next call to be 2/22/2010.
2/22/2010: Privacy policy first draft is done. In the process of review.
2/23/2010: Held a productive conference call with all hands on the legal team to discuss the status of all projects. Continuing to refine drafts of documents.
3/9/2010: Very productive conference call with all hands on the legal team to discuss the status of all projects. Drafts of documents are in review cycle.
3/23/2010: Much was accomplished during our weekly all-hands conference call. Privacy policy is going through last review cycle.
3/30/2010: Final Draft of privacy policy is complete.
4/6/2010: Privacy policy has to be reviewed by one more person and it is complete. Thanks everyone!
4/13/2010: Progress on all projects was discussed during our weekly conference call. The first draft of the Terms of Service Agreement is being circulated for review and comments.
4/20/2010: Terms of Service in first review cycle. Moving ahead with all other projects.
4/27/2010: Call focused on reviewing on-line agreements.
5/11/2010: We discussed the completion of the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service. Both should be posted soon.
5/25/2010: The Privacy Policy and Terms of Service are awaiting final approval.
12/16/2010: A meeting of the legal team was held today.
02/08/2011: Members of the legal team participated in a conference call to discuss plans for 2011.
Questions for the Legal Team
Intellectual Property Transfer agreement
Do we have any form of intellectual property transfer agreement with the agencies (e.g. the UN) that we're working with, or are we releasing code under e.g. a creative commons license etc. The worry is that agencies using our work might be vulnerable to a GIF-type IPR problem (see http://www.kyzer.me.uk/essays/giflzw/). Can we resolve this please?
- Catherine Chamberlain - catherine@ckwlaw.com picked this question up.
"Ownership" of web domains
Is there any legal entity that could be used as "registrant" for website domains please. Various domains that should be held "in common" are registered to individuals. I "own" several "crisiscommonsEU" and "crisiscommonsUK" domains (I'd like to know who got to the "crisiscampUK.org" before me ;-)) but would be more than happy to transfer "ownership". Please leave message here. Thanks! -- SpikeUK 04:57, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
Question picked up 4/28 by Catherine Chamberlain. I will pass this along to the appropriate person.
Coordinator
Coordinator: Stephen Wu, Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP and American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law, swu@ckwlaw.com, @StephenSWu , Second Life: "Legal Writer"
Team Members
Project Manager: Catherine Chamberlain, Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP, catherine@ckwlaw.com
Open Source Issues: Claire Wudowsky, ClaireLeah@aol.com, @ClaireLeah
Terms of Service for Service Offerings: Antone Johnson, Bottom Line Law Group [1], AFJ@bottomlinelawgroup.com, @antonejohnson
CC licensing (open licensing) Alex Kozak, Creative Commons , akozak@creativecommons.org (note, non-lawyer)
Privacy Issues: Christina M. Gagnier, gagnier@gamallp.com, @gamllp
and Rebecca Matthias, RAMatthias@aol.com
Immigration Issues: Geri Kahn, Attorney at Law, gkahn@pacbell.net, Second Life: "Geri Kuhn." Suppported by Laura Schultz, misslauraschultz@gmail.com.
Additional Support: Andrew Young, Google, atyoung@gmail.com
Project Summary
Project Twitter hashtag: #cclegal
Legal and and Intellectual Property Considerations: This ongoing project will be to identify and address legal issues with CrisisCommons and CrisisCamp Haiti (i.e. preventing IP infringement and ensuring proper use of commons work product).
- Project Leads (all cities): Stephen Wu, Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP and American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law, swu@ckwlaw.com, @StephenSWu
- Customer: CrisisCommons
- Location of Lead: Silicon Valley, CA
- Cities Interested:
- Boston, MA
- Assigned Project Manager(s) Across all Cities: N/A
- Interested participants:
