| GPL is the route that OmniROM tried to go down, in order to attempt to ensure that the ROM remained community focused and true to its roots. One potential issue with CM is that users were signing contributor license agreements (CLAs) to the "project leads" of the "CyanogenMod Project" [1]. While everything is under Apache 2, which ensures it can be used in future, there were plenty of cases where people submitted code under the copyright of the project (see headers which state "Copyright (C) 2016 The CyanogenMod Project"). You are correct with point 2 - if you want to prevent "acqui-hire" type takeovers, you need to ensure that there isn't a tight-knit group of individuals willing to agree and sign over the rights. This situation would be very, very different if the original CM project had taken a better approach at the start - perhaps forming a 501(c)3 for the holding of the cyanogenmod.org domain and any trademarks/name rights. Then a commercial license could be granted to the incorporated form of CM. I wish I could find a good primary source, but best I can see at the moment are fairly blog-type news sites [2]. The issue we see here is that the project's stewards were turning their focus from the project to the "commercial spinout", rather than in keeping the project going. At that point, there's little that the contributors could do really - it seemed the leaders had made the decision to build the inc version, despite high profile disagreement. Not sure GPL would fix that, but it certainly helps ensure a community project can live on, even if it won't guarantee it will. [1] https://review.cyanogenmod.org/static/cla_individual.html [2] http://www.androidheadlines.com/2013/09/author-cyanogenmods-... |
You can aquihire Linus, you can take his team, but any code you develop "in house" is going to have to go public anyways (because no one owns enough of the code).