[gentoo-project] Re: [gentoo-core] Re: Poll: Would you sign a Contributer License Agreement?

[Rich Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org>]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 7:05 AM Greg KH <gregkh@gentoo.org> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 09:54:19AM +0200, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
> >
> > The problems are listed in the rationale of GLEP 76.
> >
> > With the license currently listed at https://developercertificate.org/
> > ("changing is not allowed") nobody would even be allowed to commit the
> > DCO to a repository under it's own terms. Catch-22.
>
> And as the Debian developers said, "that's crazy-talk, don't worry about
> it."  Seriously, don't.

Do you have some kind of link to this?

Distributing the licenses is completely legal, but I don't see how
anybody could make the certifications in the DCO when doing so.

>
> What company or legal entity has concern with the DCO as-written?
>

Well, I do, at least as far as license commits go.  How could I make
the certifications in your DCO when committing a license file like the
GPL?

The text of the upstream DCO says that the file is "covered under an
appropriate open source license," and the GPL isn't covered under an
open source license.

Don't get me wrong, per the terms in the GPL it is completely legal to
redistribute.  My problem isn't with redistributing the GPL.  My
problem is with signing off on the DCO when committing the GPL to a
repository, because I'd be making a statement that isn't true.

An alternative to this would be to not require a DCO signoff when
committing license files.

> That's not the only thing that you have changed here, as you state.  You
> changed the wording of the types of licenses (hint, "free software" is
> not the same as "open source" and has consequences by changing that
> wording.)

Sure, but our intent is to require the use of a free software license.
So, the consequences are intentional here.  It isn't adequate to
merely certify that the work is covered by an open source license
(this would be one of those cases where the needs of the Linux
Foundation may not be the same as the needs of everybody).

The other wording change is in changing how the outline numbering
works, to separate the three OR clauses from the one AND clause.

-- 
Rich