[Members] Re: XSF EU Legal Structure: Example Proposals

On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 at 16:40, Peter Saint-Andre <stpeter(a)stpeter.im> wrote: Although an interesting thought experiment, I think these are broadly irrelevant because: 1) The existing XSF's IPR allows anyone else to republish and modify, so 1,2 and 3 are all possible now. 2) A future legally independent XSFish entity can own its own IPR and operate broadly under the same IPR policy that the existing XSF does. By operating on a "copyright assignment" basis, as the existing XSF does, we simply don't need to care about most of the issues you raise, or else they could happen whatever we do. So we can just move without worrying over IPR particularly, just relying on the XSF's licence, though the assignment from old-XSF to new-XSF can also happen and would probably be easier. Note that at least under some jurisdictions, copyright assignment requires an "instrument" to "perfect", so new-XSF and old-XSF may have to enter into contract and/or deed to accomplish it. My suspicion is that old-XSF could assign copyright in return for new-XSF publishing and managing the specifications, though IANAL. The trademark licensor thing, though, seems fundamentally much harder to acheive, and would certainly be impossible if "we" were not a legal entity. Dave.