Re: [gentoo-project] Council meeting 2021-07-11 - call for agenda items

[Rich Freeman]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2021 at 5:27 AM Ulrich Mueller <ulm@g.o> wrote:
>
> >>>>> On Wed, 07 Jul 2021, Robin H Johnson wrote:
>
> > TL;DR:
> > Please change the format of metadata/AUTHORS to yaml-based list of "key:
> > [value,...]" where key is the identity of a Gentoo developer, and the
> > list is copyright holders that the developer has worked for.
>
> Using the Gentoo uid as the key would imply that contributors other than
> developers cannot be listed in the file. Is this a valid assumption?

I would say no.  Also, you can't assume that somebody introducing
commits owned by some entity is employed or even associated with that
entity.

Think about the eudev fiasco, which was also something that drove the
copyright policy.  Suppose I want to add some 3rd party copyrighted
material to the repo and have done my homework to ensure it is
license-compatible.  I may need to add them to the AUTHORS file so
that we're not just removing their copyright attribution and causing a
huge controversy.  However, I'm not associated with them in any way,
and neither are any of my other commits.  I'm just adding their stuff
to the repo in this one commit.  I don't want to be listed in the
AUTHORS file implying in some way that I am employed by EvilCorp.  I'm
just borrowing their code, legally.

The AUTHORS file is just a list of anybody who wishes (or who we
assume might wish) to be acknowledged in the copyright attributions.

If you want to be able to map commits to original copyright owners it
would probably be better to add a git header for this.

-- 
Rich