The wxWindows Software Foundation

Unfortunately the wxWindows Software Foundation will shortly be dissolved due to a lack of concensus in the core wxWidgets community. Thank you the interest and support shown by the majority of users and contributors. We hope that one day the idea of a Foundation will be revived and we can once again have a formal body to represent the interests of the project.

A big thank you to those at OSAF who did everything they could to support the Foundation.

Copyright Assignment

Copyright assignment has proved to be a controversial topic within the wxWidgets community. The original motivation for assignment was to allow greater protection of our intellectual property, since in the event of legal action fewer people would be required to be present at proceedings. It would also have sent a signal to potential users that we take the integrity of our intellectual property seriously, and it would have encouraged contributors to make sure the code is 'clean'. We took heart from projects such as Python that copyright assignment was a desirable and responsible thing to do, and we had advice from lawyers saying it was 'the only reasonable course of action'. However, assignment was perceived by some to have serious disadvantages, such as the problem of what to do with the IP should the Foundation be dissolved.

Although we have received over 30 assignment documents, some core developers withdrew their support for it and the Foundation has had no option but to nullify the process. We have been advised that without countersigning, the existing assignment forms do not constitute a binding agreement and so we can dissolve all assignments.

The wxWindows Software Foundation unanimously passed the following resolution on January 21st.

wxWindows Software Foundation: Copyright Assignment Cancellation Resolution, January 21st 2004

The wxWindows Software Foundation regrets that it is cancelling the copyright assignment process due to support for assignment within the wxWidgets community failing to reach a critical mass.

All developers who have executed assignments will be contacted to notify them that their assignment is null and void; their assignment form will be destroyed or, on request, sent back. The Foundation thanks all those who took the trouble to send in assignment forms and apologises for the inconvenience.