Doug Olson wrote:
Hi Olle, First, I am not a lawyer, so ... Even so, in the VO's that I am familiar with, largish physics experiments, the VO is formed by agreements between the institutions that employ the people who decide to be part of the VO.
That seems to be the way with most VOs I've heard of - a far cry from the dynamic on-the-fly set-up many people are talking about and building software to support.
The institutions are legal entities but the agreements that form the VO are not necesarily legally binding and the VO itself has no legal status, it is not something which can be sued, files no tax returns, etc.
Where there is commercial value - or legal issues over privacy, say - the agreements do have to be stronger, with lawyers and redress, and so on. When such a VO becomes very real joint venture, I don't know - better ask a lawyer. Making a grid set-up where you can negotiate such things in software and have them adequately legally binding ... seems some way off.
My 2c.
I'm down under right now, so that had better be my AU$0.02. But here there are no 2c coins, so they'd round it down to zero. Andrew.