Re: [Gnumed-devel] 5 fulltime pre-graduating software engineering students

[John Mackenzie]

> I should think we should make fri**in' damn sure we won't have
> trouble in the way that suddenly RMIT starts to think "Gee,
> this is one darn nice thingy them students of us worked on.
> Let's go screw 'em and start selling this little cutie to all
> those GPs out there."

These are aspects which were recently disussed with Horst. 
My understanding of open source GPL'd projects is that 
no-one and no entity "owns" the project, or can claim any 
royalties for the sale of the product. 

> Do RMIT students have the power to "donate" "their" IP 
> to a GPL project ? I should certainly like to know.
> 
> Karsten

Yes, RMIT students can contribute their expertise to 
anything they want.  But if they want that work to be 
recognised by the Uni as work done towards 
obtaining their degree(s), then the work needs to be 
approved by the Uni, and a Uni supervisor monitors 
the work to ensure that it fulfills required criteria. 

As such, the standing Uni-student agreement is that 
the Uni becomes the owner of the intellectual property 
of that project work, BUT the only benefit to the Uni 
when students contribute to GPLd projects is that the 
Uni can claim (rightfully) that they have been 
contributors to the project.  

I feel grateful that RMIT have accepted GnuMed as 
the 3-semester project for the student group.  

John Mac