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Theodore Ts'o writes ("Re: Bug#727708: tech-ctte: Decide which init system to
default to in Debian."):
> On a different subject, which I don't think has been raised so far ---
> has the Debian maintinares for the upstart package made any comments
> about bug fixes or code contributions from Debian Developers who are
> personally opposed to being forced to sign copyright assignment
> agreements, or for whom their employers forbid them from signing
> copyright assignment aggrements (both of which apply to me). If I
> submit a bugfix as part of a bug report, will the Upstart maintainers
> reject it out of hand if I have not executed a copyright assignment
> with Canonical, or will they be willing to consider either carrying it
> as a local Debian patch, and/or rewrite the commit and submit it
> upstream to Canonical?
I expect that Debian's upstart maintainers will take patches from
refusenik submitters into the Debian version without demanding that
they get involved with upstream and the CLA. That means that the
patches might not go upstream, but that's how Free Software works,
after all: we have the legal right to make our own version without
reference to upstream, and with something the size of upstart doing so
is entirely practical.
Indeed, I think the Debian maintainers of a package with a
legally-recalcitrant upstream have a duty not to insist on external
legal formalities when taking patches into the Debian version of a
program, and that includes a duty to take into Debian, and carry,
patches which really ought to go upstream but which are being rejected
because of upstream's legal policy.
> Is this something that has been considered by the maintainers, and is
> this something which is important to other DD's and the
> tech-committee?
If I thought there was going to be a problem with this it would be a
show-stopper for upstart for me. But my understanding is that this is
not going to be a problem. CLA-less patches will simply live in
Debian, as would be expected.
Ian.
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