Re: [gentoo-project] call for agenda items -- council meeting 2019-04-14

[Raymond Jennings]

On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 2:03 PM Raymond Jennings <shentino@×××××.com> wrote:

> The only thing that I can say is that obfuscating one's real identity
> could cause problems in the following areas:
>
> 1. Accountability in terms of any problems caused, either by malice or
> incompetence.  For analogy, using caller ID to trace someone who may or may
> not have been spoofing their ID
> 2. copyright law, which is likely to be obvious in terms of grants or
> licenses, especially in the face of the GPL (of any version), and who owns
> which copyright can possibly be traced by the inclusion of real life
> identity.  This also relates to point 1.
> 3. people doing gentoo work on company time may well forfeit their
> copyright interest to their employer under "work for hire", depending on
> jurisdiction and/or what arrangements are made.  Said employer may be able
> to veto the wishes of the actual author, and may have their own legal
> department/law firm on retainer, and have deeper legal pockets to sue with
> if they want to object.  In my opinion, having a "paper trail" of sorts to
> follow is essential both to track down legal problems and discourage anyone
> from causing them, also in relation to points 1 and 2 above.
>
> The details of how this is achieved is of course up to the proper people,
> but my personal opinion is that requiring a linux kernel style "sign-off"
> that at a minimum includes the real, legal name of the author of the change
> being committed is an important part of the process that at a minimum makes
> sure that said author is involved in the process of accountability,
> especially if any problems arise from it (legal or technical or otherwise)
>

Relatedly, I would opine that anyone who intentionally uses a false name
(especially if they get caught) has a possibly rebuttable presumption
against them that they are acting in bad faith and thus less trustworthy.

Accordingly I certainly would not object to punitive/remedial measures
being taken against people who intentionally obfusecate their identity,
especially if it causes problems or makes it harder for them to be held
accountable for it.

>
> On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 1:56 PM Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 4:45 PM Alec Warner <antarus@g.o> wrote:
>> >
>> > That being said I don't intend to forge a policy that is bullet-proof.
>> If I cannot trust fellow project members to act well, they might as well
>> just leave the project now.
>>
>> ++
>>
>> Ultimately if somebody with commit access wants to create trouble
>> there are a lot of things they can do that are far more harmful than
>> using a fake name.  I think we just need to be reasonable.
>>
>> Usually the standard that is used in courts at least in the US is
>> reasonable care, and it has no hard definition, other than basically
>> being the amount of care a normal person would exercise to do the
>> right thing.  If you want to find out whether something is or isn't
>> reasonable care the easiest way is to get sued, or sue somebody else,
>> and then after a few years you get an answer, and maybe a judgment.
>>
>> I think there are probably some legal benefits to requiring a real
>> name, but personally I think there are more benefits beyond that.  I
>> think it tends to create a more professional atmosphere when people
>> are conversing with "Alec Warner" and not "Boaty McBoatface" or
>> whatever.  Also, having some kind of reputational risk probably does
>> help cut down on the trolling somewhat.  Maybe...
>>
>> If you wanted to put Gentoo on your resume would you really want a
>> potential employer to Google it and find articles by people like
>> "420forlife?"  I think this sort of thing can help set the tone for
>> the community.
>>
>> That's just my opinion...
>>
>> --
>> Rich
>>
>>