> Imagine Rockbox was open for anonymous contributions and some lawyer finds a piece of code which infringes the copyright of some company. Who would have the problem then? Björn, Daniel and Linus, because they are responsible for the project and they host the project on their server. So you say that _you_ don't want to have your name in the sources, it's better if they take the responsibility for your code?
This isn't what happens. Björn, Daniel and Linus are still responsible, period. When a lawyer doesn't like something about an open source project, they deal with the maintainers, regardless of "who" contributed the code. If they don't like something and are powerful (read have a real legal budget), then they'll demand the code be removed, regardless of whether the maintainers have a real or fake name associated with it. This is because the maintainers maintain the code; the original contributor, fake or not, may be missing in action. When microsoft came after me and demanded that the Microwindows name be exterminated, they weren't concerned with "who" wrote what, since they fully realize they can't chase after contributions backed only by a "name". Instead, they forced their will on the maintainer (me), since I was available and actively promoting the project. Tracking names for legal reasons doesn't accomplish anything, in my experience. When the offending code needs removal, that's where CVS comes in: the contributed code is backed out. Regards, Greg
