Will Glass-Husain wrote:
(Let me try this again)
Thanks, Ted.
That's a great email.
I read it and drew a rather different conclusion.
All the reasons cited make sense.
<sigh>
Will, don't you see some problems of logical cogency in the text that
Ted Husted cited?
I mean, at some point there, you have this interchange:
<QUOTE>
> everyone can browse the CVS for an ASF project to see
> who has been doing what to any code for which an @author tag would >
> matter.
"Right. And..."
</QUOTE>
So, basically, it is being argued, and the author concurs, that anybody
who makes it their business to know can know who wrote whatever code anyway.
But then, lower down in the message,
<QUOTE>
From a legal standpoint, it is worrisome if your name is in the code.
The ASF is also built as a legal shield against (malicious) lawsuits. If
your name is in the code, then the plaintiff stands a very reasonable
chance of saying "you're name's in there, so you're at fault."
</QUOTE>
Well, I ask you... if anybody can figure out who wrote whatever code
anyway, what difference is it if you put in an @author tag or not? It
amounts to appending information that is available anyway, right?
Now, of course, all of this is surreal in nature anyway, since the idea
that anybody who downloads your code off the net for free and then uses
it with whatever bad consequences can turn around and sue you -- is this
not a bit absurd?
First of all, in what jurisdiction is the person going to take legal
action? Second of all, in what jurisdiction is such a case not going to
be laughed out of court? I mean, somebody take my code off the net,
doesn't pay me a red cent, is specifically told that I take no
responsibility for how he uses it, and then he's going to try to sue me
when things go wrong. Is there any real precedent for this?
Especially when
you realize that all today's committers are "generation two" -- many of the
names in the code no longer are associated with the project.
Well, hmm... at first blush that seems kind of irrelevant. Ernest
Hemingway is dead and his name still appears on the books he wrote...
<shrug>
But in any case, the legal/juridical sort of argument being made is that
if you don't put in @author tags, you have "plausible deniability" that
you actually wrote the code in question, and this can avoid you these
supposed legal headaches. (And this seemingly contradicts the consensus
from earlier in the message, that everybody knows who did what anyway...)
<sigh>
This just all seems so absurd to me. Or am I missing something about this?
I'm now a solid +1 on removing author tags.
Hmm.... Is this because you actually found the arguments in the message
convincing or is it because some grand poo-bah of the "Apache Way"
stepped in (seemingly from nowhere) and pointed you to this holy
scripture, and now suddenly you fall in line. I mean, that anybody would
find the arguments in that message at all convincing is just
flabbergasting to me....
Jonathan Revusky
--
lead developer, FreeMarker project, http://freemarker.org/
WILL
On 5/3/07, Ted Husted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 5/3/07, Will Glass-Husain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> What's the primary reason for the recommendation?
Here's Greg Stein's reasoning:
* http://tinyurl.com/mw7t6
-Ted.
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