From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 31743 invoked by uid 1002); 21 Aug 2003 05:29:14 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gentoo-dev-help@gentoo.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Received: (qmail 12273 invoked from network); 21 Aug 2003 05:29:12 -0000 From: Mike Gardiner To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <33324.203.10.231.229.1061441473.squirrel@tkdack.bpa.nu> References: <20030821040916.GE26885@squish.home.loc> <20030821041723.GA2653@cerberus.oppresses.us> <33324.203.10.231.229.1061441473.squirrel@tkdack.bpa.nu> Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1061442673.3999.7.camel@zen.mine.nu> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.4 Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 13:11:39 +0800 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Why should copyright assignment be a requirement? X-Archives-Salt: a5323c50-9f61-433c-ba4b-46d0947a6dbf X-Archives-Hash: 5d957302e36000fc6a24e5bdc5fffa26 > [Note I am not versed in the many nuances of copyright law] > > I can understand this position, however I think some people feel that this > is in some way removing or diminishing the fact that they have made a > contribution to Gentoo. > > Would it not be possible for copyright to be assigned to Gentoo and the > author of the ebuild? > > I believe that this has been discussed previously on this list (when I get > a chance I'll search my archive) and that there was an agreement reached > between Gentoo and an educational institution on this very matter. > > - -- > Troy Dack It's interesting that this has come up on the list, considering I saw this on my buglist yesterday: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16001 and asked for comments by those with more experience/understanding about the copyright situation than myself. In a lot of ways, for users or contributors, I think it boils down to credit and acknowledgement, rather than as a legal hold or similar. The standard method for giving credit for ebuilds submissions, that I was introduced to at least, was to ensure the contributor was acknowledged in the ChangeLog corresponding with the first commit of the package. Something simple along the lines of, "Thanks to Some User for the ebuild contribution". I guess to users this doesnt seem as concrete an acknowledgement as a line like, # Copyright 2003 (c) Some User in the actual ebuild script. In the comments for the bug I commented on incorrect headers as a syntactical problem with the script, without consideration for the actual copyright ownership, which, as it turned out, was a much bigger issue than fixing 'simple' problems with the ebuild. Thanks, Mike // apologies for waffle. -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list