[gentoo-project] Re: [gentoo-dev] [PATCH] glep-0076: Require real name instead of legal name

[Robin H. Johnson]

(CC to gentoo-project as required by the GLEP itself).

On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 05:28:36AM +0500, Anna Vyalkova wrote:
> This patch uses more friendly language towards potential transgender
> and plural contributors.
>
> No other projects require to use a legal name, e.g. Linux says to use
> your real name[0].
>
> Government issued documents are really a bad example since in some
> countries it's really hard to get your name changed there.
Hi Anna,

There was a very long discussion in #gentoo-council IRC about this
today, with many sides represented.

I apologize I didn't follow who suggested some of the ideas first, so if
something was mis-credited, the fault lies with me.

The need is for GLEP76's name requirement to balance copyright protection with
complexities of jurisdictional naming complexities [4][5].

The kernel DCO says:
"using your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)"

Copyright law itself, at various levels (including US law and WIPO treaty
[CR001EN]) treaty does permit copyright held by pseudonyms in many cases.
But Copyright law also makes assumptions that some body, be it publisher or
government office, holds the "real" identity (which can be discovered by legal
or other actions), and the publisher holds some liability in this process.

Thus Copyright law tries to impose the need to associate a person with a
a copyrightable work.

Thus it raises two questions:
- Is the open source organization that receives a contribution a publisher in
  this case?
- If the organization is a publisher, does this mean they are required to
  implement some level of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) system?

This is all so messy :-(. Maybe we can approach it from a different angle.

The older version of the GLEP did use the term "real name", and it was
changed to "legal name" because the advice at the time is that "real
name" wasn't well-defined.
https://bugs.gentoo.org/653118
https://gitweb.gentoo.org/data/glep.git/commit/glep-0076.rst?id=5713e7e0fbeb37a74743f11c80da2d8bdd87acf2

I previously proposed amending it further:
https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-project/message/26d68349541e4db54a93edf57d6e7404

But in further discussion, even my proposal didn't go far enough.

Neither "real name" or "legal name" correctly convey the underlying intent
here, and both of them have additional unwanted baggage [1][2][3], and
disproportionately impact some population groups.

Tying this back together: 
The Foundation has *zero* desire to implement a KYC system, or to be the
holders of any non-public personal information. Esp. The Foundation does
not want to even have to look at ID documents. So it's not acceptable to
just have: "send your linkage between pseudonym and name-on-ID to
trustees".

What's really needed?
GLEP76 must show that Gentoo (as a legal entity: the current Foundation, or
future umbrella), has undertaken due diligence in accepting the contribution.

The discussion in #gentoo-council ended up producing a potential text that I'll
attached as a patch.

I'd like to thank the following for their contributions to the text.

kuzetsa CatSwarm <kuzetsa@×××××.us> ** significant wording
Richard Freeman <rich0@g.o>
John Helmert III <ajak@g.o>
Ulrich Müller <ulm@g.o>
Alec Warner <antarus@g.o>

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle.net#Privacy_and_Real_ID
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_controversy
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymwars
[4] Depending where you are, it can range from very easy to almost-impossible to change your name.
[5] In https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-project/message/26d68349541e4db54a93edf57d6e7404, I linked many other examples
[CR001EN] https://wipolex-res.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/cr/cr001en.html

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
Gentoo Linux: Dev, Infra Lead, Foundation Treasurer
E-Mail   : robbat2@g.o
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