[Nagiosplug-devel] Antwort: Re: Contributing patches and retaining copyright

[Ton Voon]

On 6 May 2009, at 10:02, Sascha.Runschke at gfkl.com wrote:

>> Any contributed code that gets back into the main code from now on is
>> accepted on the basis that the copyright can be given to the Nagios
>> Plugin team. I've updated the FAQ entry to be clearer on that policy:
>> http://nagiosplugins.org/copyright
>>
>> We'd be happy to hear about any changes, but only if you are willing
>> to relinquish copyright.
>
> Hi Ton,
>
> for most people - including me, it is unacceptable to fully
> relinquish the copyright on something that's my (or my
> companies) work. The reasoning that the plugins team needs
> "the right" to make changes to the code even after the
> original author has withdrawn from public does not really make
> sense to me. After all the code is GPL and everyone can do
> whatever he wants with it - as long as the copyright and
> GPL notice are retained.

We're following advice given by FSF: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AssignCopyright

If you have contributed some code to the project, we thank you and we  
make sure you (and/or your company) get credit. But in reality, the  
team take on the responsibility to make sure that the code continues  
to work correctly. Not just at commit time, but forever.

I think this continued responsibility should be reflected in the  
ownership of the code.

The upshot for you (and/or your company) is that you no longer  
maintain that code anymore - that has to be worth something!

Ton

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