From time to time, we receive patches from people who prefer to remain anonymous (e.g. use a nickname and not their real name). It would be nice if we had a clear policy on whether we are OK with this.
After some searching, from what I understand, the GPL license does not
forbid anonymous contributions [1]. However, I'm not too confident in
this. I wish there were an entry in the GPL FAQ [2]. The question
regarding the Eclipse Public License (EPL) is addressed in the EPL FAQ,
which states that a contributor may not remain anonymous.
I have found open source projects who use GPL that explicitly state they
do not accept anonymous contributions, e.g. [3].
If we can accept anonymous contributions under the GPL (which needs a
more definitive answer), do we want to? In the past I think I remember
LyX developers being generally against accepting anonymous
contributions. My personal opinion is that if the GPL allows, I would
like for LyX to accept contributions without forcing contributors to
reveal their true name. My main argument in favor is that I think that
protecting peoples' privacy is important and with time is only becoming
more important.
The post in [1] mentions that some projects do not accept such
contributions because they are afraid that the patch could actually come
from somewhere else and the poster does not have permission to give the
copyright away. But if this is really our concern, I would argue that in
practice someone who wished to remain anonymous would just have to
create a fake name ("John Smith") and submit the patch like that. So
unless we do some extra verification (e.g. we require a PGP signature),
I don't see how forcing people to use a (fake) name solves this
particular concern.
I've seen arguments in the past that since we chose to give up our
anonymity, it is only fair that others do the same. I really don't
understand this argument. If someone believes this, can you expand
further? Why force someone unnecessarily to do something they don't want
to do?
I'm curious about your thoughts. Since GPL license issues are a topic
that I'm pretty ignorant about, I'm open to changing my mind.
Scott
[1]
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/115343/does-the-agplv3-allow-people-to-contibute-code-anonymously
[2]
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
[3]
https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/CONTRIBUTIONS
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