Disputes over Ownership of Intellectual Property
Licensors can only license software which they own or which they have received permission to license. That basic legal requirement is explicitly acknowledged in the OSL/AFL by the warranty of provenance and in the MPL and CPL by their representations. (OSL/AFL section 7; MPL section 3.4[c]; CPL section 2[d].) All open source licenses, regardless of their explicit language, at least imply that the software is being licensed under the authority of its copyright owner. A licensor who fails to abide by that implied or explicit promise can be guilty in some jurisdictions of fraud or gross negligence, regardless of warranty disclaimers.
A contributor who submits a contribution he or she doesn't own might ...
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