Re: [gentoo-project] [RFC] glep-0076: add clarification about the sign-off requirements

[Ulrich Mueller]

>>>>> On Thu, 29 Jul 2021, Joonas Niilola wrote:

> On 29.7.2021 11.05, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
>>
>> Unfortunately, copyright law doesn't work like this.
>>
>> Typically, a contribution will be an adaptation of an existing work.
>> By copyright law, it is a protected work, and the author has the
>> exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution, unless he or she
>> grants these rights to others, typically by releasing it under some
>> license.

> Just slap a notification when ever any Github PR is opened, or bugzilla
> attachment added (same way as the GLEP-76 is now mentioned in them)
> Stating "if you don't accept to these terms, close your PR or don't
> upload your attachment". Hey, it works with cookies in *every* web site,
> why couldn't it work here legally?

I think that contributions on Github can be counted as a subset of my
case e), i.e. they have an independent indication of their license.

This is by section D.6 of Github's terms of service [1]:

| Whenever you add Content to a repository containing notice of a
| license, you license that Content under the same terms, and you agree
| that you have the right to license that Content under those terms. If
| you have a separate agreement to license that Content under different
| terms, such as a contributor license agreement, that agreement will
| supersede.

> Does *any* other distribution require this to contribute? Or apart from
> linux itself, *any* other open source project?

Many, and much stricter conditions. For example, the FSF requires
signing of their copyright papers before accepting contributions.
(Also, they send the form by snail mail. So a postal address under your
name must exist, which is at least a rudimentary verification of your
identity.)

Ulrich

[1] https://docs.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-terms-of-service#d-user-generated-content