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Re: [eclipse.org-members-committers] Upcoming Vote of the Membership


Steve,

As I mentioned previously, there are certain government agencies that are legally prohibited from entering into any agreement that is interpreted by individual state law.  The first specific member who we would like to have join immediately is the US-based National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), who is looking to become a member and to join the LocationTech working group.

We believe having agencies such as NGA as members will strengthen the Foundation as a whole.

Please note these governmental agencies are not asking, nor are we granting, any exemptions from or other modifications to any specific terms of our Membership Agreement.  Rather, we are simply agreeing to have the Agreement itself interpreted using other laws other than NY state law.  In the case of NGA, the Membership Agreement would be interpreted under US federal law.

Steve, your comment regarding "potentially very powerful members who end up not being bound by the membership terms at all" just doesn't apply - all our members, including these new members, will be bound by the exact same terms and conditions as everyone else. Each case considered by the Eclipse Foundation will be carefully reviewed by our attorneys to ensure that this important principle remains in place.


On 04/08/2015 4:19 AM, Steve Powell wrote:
Although I see no objection in principle to amending the clause for a restricted set of agencies, I would like to see addressed:
  • a much clearer definition of which agencies come under this amendment ("government agencies" sounds far too imprecise)
  • under which law would the agreement be interpreted for these agencies (there has to be one)?
  • if the membership involves exempted and non-exempted members, which law would apply to a dispute?
I suppose I'm slightly nervous allowing potentially very powerful members who end up not being bound by the membership terms at all.

Steve Powell          [M: +44-7815-838-558 H:+44-1962-775-598
  Every great art must be supplemented by leisurely discussion, by stargazing, if you will, about the nature of things.
Plato (Socrates in Phædrus)
pivotal.io|SpringSource|RabbitMQ 

On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 12:22 AM, Mike Milinkovich <mike.milinkovich@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I don't understand the question. Why would an organization which has already signed the agreement want to re-sign? 

Remember that the test here is that there is an absolute legal prohibition against the organization joining under the current terms. If they've already signed, then that's clearly not the case.

From: GERARD Sebastien 166342
Sent: Monday, August 3, 2015 4:46 PM
To: mike.milinkovich@xxxxxxxxxxx; Eclipse Membership and Committer List; Martin Lippert
Subject: RE: [eclipse.org-members-committers] Upcoming Vote of the Membership

In that case, will it be possible for already members to adopt these new possibilities?

De : Mike Milinkovich
Envoyé : ‎03/‎08/‎2015 18:45
À : Martin Lippert; Eclipse Membership and Committer List
Objet : Re: [eclipse.org-members-committers] Upcoming Vote of the Membership



On 03/08/2015 12:03 PM, Martin Lippert wrote:
> What are the implications for existing members of the foundation if such a government agency joins the foundation via amending the governing law in such a case?

None that I am aware of.

> Maybe something like a worst-case example scenario in which the New York state as the governing law would play a role (and what would happen then for those government agencies) would help me to understand this better.

Sorry, but I have no examples that I could competently explain. Our
membership agreement is a very simple document. In most cases we expect
that this would be a no-op. In any event, these types of concerns only
really become pertinent in the event of litigation, which seems very
unlikely.

--
Mike Milinkovich
mike.milinkovich@xxxxxxxxxxx
+1.613.220.3223 (mobile)

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