
wk at gnupg
Apr 12, 2012, 2:49 AM
Post #1 of 5
(369 views)
Permalink
|
|
Relaxing the need for copyright assignments
|
|
Hi! Nowadays we have wealth of crypto libraries available. It is often easier to contribute to them than to Libgcrypt. The copyright assignments required for Libgcrypt turned out to be a major hassle and thus I plan to relax the rules. What do you think of this: Libgcrypt is currently licensed under the LGPLv2+ with tools and the manual being under the GPLv2+. We may eventually update to a newer version of the license or a combination of them. It is thus important, that all contributed code allows for an update of the license; thus we can't accept any code under the LGPLv2(only). We used to have a strict policy of requiring copyright assignments to the FSF. To avoid this major organizational overhead and to allow inclusion of code, not copyrighted by the FSF, this policy has been relaxed. It is now also possible to contribute code by asserting that the contribution is in accordance to the "Libgcrypt Developer's Certificate of Origin" as found in the file "doc/DCO". (Except for a slight wording change, this DCO is identical to the one used by the Linux kernel.) If your want to contribute code (or documentation) to Libgcrypt and you didn't signed a copyright assignment with the FSF in the past, you need to take these simple steps: - Decide which mail address you want to use. Please have your real name in the address and not a pseudonym. Anonymous contributions can only be done if you find a proxy who certifies for you. - If your employer or school might claim ownership of code written by you; you need to talk to them to make sure that you have the right to contribute under the DCO. - Send a mail to the gcrypt-devel [at] gnupg mailing list from that mail address. Include a copy of the DCO as found in the official master branch. Insert your name and email address into the DCO in the same way you want to use it later. For example: Signed-off-by: Joe R. Hacker <joe [at] example> If you really need it, you may perform simple transformations of the mail address: Replacing "@" by " at ", "." by " dot ". - That's it. From now on you only need to add a "Signed-off-by:" line with your name and mail address to the commit message. The DCO is Libgcrypt Developer's Certificate of Origin. Version 1.0 ========================================================= By making a contribution to the Libgcrypt project, I certify that: (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I have the right to submit it under the free software license indicated in the file; or (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate free software license and I have the right under that license to submit that work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under the same free software license (unless I am permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated in the file; or (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified it. (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are public and that a record of the contribution (including all personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with this project or the free software license(s) involved. Signed-off-by: [Your name and mail address] I pondered with the idea of requiring OpenPGP signed statements but rejected it. They don't gain much unless we want to establish another complicated procedure to check the trustworthiness of the key. Even if we would do so, we will have no way to check the provenience of the submitted code. Salam-Shalom, Werner -- Die Gedanken sind frei. Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz. _______________________________________________ Gcrypt-devel mailing list Gcrypt-devel [at] gnupg http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gcrypt-devel
|