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Re: Changes to "Contribution Checklist" -- Format of the contribution.
- From: Florian Weimer <fweimer at redhat dot com>
- To: Joseph Myers <joseph at codesourcery dot com>
- Cc: Carlos O'Donell <carlos at redhat dot com>, Andreas Schwab <schwab at suse dot de>, Adhemerval Zanella <adhemerval dot zanella at linaro dot org>, Szabolcs Nagy <szabolcs dot nagy at arm dot com>, GNU C Library <libc-alpha at sourceware dot org>
- Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2019 22:54:03 +0100
- Subject: Re: Changes to "Contribution Checklist" -- Format of the contribution.
- References: <187fa6e8-11fc-e33a-daa1-51d0aa3962f7@redhat.com> <87y36iy9mm.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> <29a94078-d05d-e29c-8009-e905bfb2bf31@redhat.com> <87ftspjkao.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> <alpine.DEB.2.21.1902151349210.19658@digraph.polyomino.org.uk> <87o96edbe8.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> <alpine.DEB.2.21.1903132131450.10481@digraph.polyomino.org.uk>
* Joseph Myers:
> On Wed, 13 Mar 2019, Florian Weimer wrote:
>
>> > I think we should remove the existing "Contributed by" statements (that
>> > avoids them appearing in new files people copy from old ones) - but before
>> > removing such a statement we need to make sure the names in question are
>> > properly credited in contrib.texi.
>>
>> I don't want to make such changes because as far as I know, for some
>> contributors at least, we cannot legally remove them unilaterally
>> because these authors have a right to be named as such, something that
>
> What's the basis for such a right to be named in the source file (as
> opposed to in contrib.texi, ChangeLogs, etc.)?
>
> (In UK law, the right to be identified as author of a work does not apply
> to a computer program anyway.)
As far I know, the relevant German law makes no distinction based on the
kind of work.
Acknowledgement in the manual would not be sufficient for downstreams
that do not distribute it over licensing concerns. With ChangeLog
files, I think the only gap would be installed header files, which are
sometimes distributed without ChangeLogs. (Such distributions probably
do not meet the requirements of the GPL and other applicable licenses,
either, so maybe that does not matter.)
All this is just an uneducated guess. I see that my comment quoted
above might be misleading. What I intended to convey was that, I,
personally, will not make such changes. I do not have a strong opinion
whether the project should keep them.
Thanks,
Florian