[Nagiosplug-devel] porposal to clarify terms of submission

[Voon, Ton]

I have setup a THANKS file in the top level of nagiosplug. This will take
the list of contributors in ./AUTHORS and add it to THANKS.in. We can use
this to keep a list of all contributors.

I have gone through all CVS comments for all the code in plugins/ and
plugin-scripts/ and code from March to get any names I could find. I still
want to go through SF's tracker items, but I draw the line at the mailing
list archives!

When committing submissions or fixing bugs from a report, can I propose:

- adding the contributor's name into the CVS comments
- adding the contributor to the AUTHORS file

I'll clarify this in the dev guidelines if everyone is happy about this.

Ton

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karl DeBisschop [mailto:karl at debisschop.net] 
> Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 1:11 PM
> To: Ton Voon
> Cc: NagiosPlug Devel
> Subject: RE: [Nagiosplug-devel] porposal to clarify terms of 
> submission
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 06:33, Voon, Ton wrote:
> > I don't fully understand all the copyright issues, but I 
> agree that the
> > Nagios Plugin Development Group should bear the 
> responsibility, and thus the
> > copyright, of all code distributed.
> > 
> > As a former contributor, my only request was for a little 
> credit. I don't
> > think this should be in the form of comments within the 
> code, but a clear
> > document that says this person has made a contribution to 
> the project, like
> > what Ethan has done at 
> http://www.nagios.org/contributors.php. This is why I
> > always put down the contributor for bug reports or patches in CVS
> > statements.
> 
> Quite fair. 
> 
> I had in practice sort of pushed a certain anonnomity becuse in the
> plugins the original practice hade been to attribute each 
> contribution.
> The comments in some cases began to overwhelm the code, so that had to
> stop. But in retrospect thaht should have causes me to put 
> more emphasis
> on an external list like the one Ethan has. And into CVS 
> commits. I will
> try to be more diligent about the latter. Perhaps we should 
> also make a
> contrbutors page.
> 
> > Ton
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Karl DeBisschop [mailto:karl at debisschop.net] 
> > > Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 7:05 AM
> > > To: NagiosPlug Devel
> > > Subject: [Nagiosplug-devel] porposal to clarify terms of 
> submission
> > > 
> > > 
> > > In the last round of cleanup, I have found a few times where 
> > > attribution
> > > and current copyright has become murky.
> > > 
> > > I'd like to clarify things in our public documents so 
> people know what
> > > to expect.
> > > 
> > > In my mind, this is the model under which we operate is as 
> > > follows. This
> > > is a little scattershot, but should be a basis for comment. 
> > > Out of this
> > > I hope to formulate some clearer policy statements to be 
> included with
> > > the distribution.
> > > 
> > > COPYRIGHT
> > > 
> > > When a plugin is accepted, copyright is transferred to the 'Nagios
> > > Plugin Developemnt Group." For our part, we will retain 
> credit to the
> > > contributor preceding our copyright statement. But I 
> think we should
> > > assert copyright as an entity to 1) protect changes we 
> make 2) be in a
> > > position to defend copyright if need be [I fear that if 
> some sort of
> > > challenge arose, we'd be so busy calrifying rights that 
> we'd be unable
> > > to defend those rights].
> > > 
> > > A plugin becomes elegible for acceptance whenever a 
> > > contributor requests
> > > that a plugin be placed in contrib (via deposit in the new plugins
> > > tracker, or via request for inclusion to the list or to a 
> developer).
> > > Simply posting code to the list does not make the plugin 
> eligible -
> > > there may be a request to integrate. We should consider 
> > > adding a control
> > > to the tracker allowing a contirbutor to indicate whether 
> or not the
> > > plugin should be integrated.
> > > 
> > > LICENSE
> > > 
> > > The plugins are GPL.
> > > 
> > > All tracker submissions should be GPL.
> > > 
> > > Other open-source licenses will be tolerated on the 
> mailing lists, but
> > > GPL is preferred. Any plugin that becomes integrated or 
> packaged with
> > > the plugin must be GPL, however.
> > > 
> > > RECONCILIATION
> > > 
> > > When I took over development of the plugins a few years back, 
> > > there was
> > > no sense of there being a development group. I made judgment 
> > > calls about
> > > how to assign copyrights based on the degree to which I 
> had modified a
> > > plugin. In retrospect I could/should have done better. But 
> > > that's water
> > > under the bridge. 
> > > 
> > > Nonetheless, once these issues are documented, we should make 
> > > an effort
> > > to contact the original contributors to be sure they do not 
> > > feel we are
> > > infringing their rights. I'm not worried here - they were 
> submitted
> > > under GPL. But I feel respect for other's contributions 
> requires us to
> > > make the effort to document that there is no objection to our 
> > > asserting
> > > copyright on the derived GPL'd work.
> > > 
> > > INFRINGEMENT
> > > 
> > > We should make explicit statements that no infringement of 
> > > intellectual
> > > property will be tolerated. There should be some 
> indication of that on
> > > the tracker used to submit contributed plugins. I am at a 
> loss for how
> > > this might be 'enforced'. At a minimum, we should request 
> that if any
> > > party sees a possible infringement, they should bring it to our
> > > attention so it may be examined and corrected if need be.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Any and all comments appreciated.
> > > 
> > > --
> > > Karl 


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