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Stefano suggested that I bring this to the legal-discuss list. I
know that this has been discussed in the past, so I don't anticipate
a great shift in sentiment, but it seemed worth discussing.<br>
<br>
My full thoughts are on my blog -
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<a href="http://drbacchus.com/copyright-statements-in-source-files">http://drbacchus.com/copyright-statements-in-source-files</a>
- and I know some of you have seen this discussed on the docs
mailing list, or seen it on planet.openstack<br>
<br>
Anyways, it has been my experience in Open Source communities that
having a copyright statement at the top of a source file can be very
off-putting to people who want to contribute to that file, due to
the perception that it is "owned" by someone in particular.<br>
<br>
The statement is not necessary: copyright law ensures that
contributors have copyright on the content that they author, and git
keeps a permanent record of who contributed what. Some folks have
claimed (the last time this came up on this list) that the statement
was necessary, and this is not the case.<br>
<br>
It's also unscalable - think in terms of 10 years from now when
every file potentially lists hundreds of copyright holders - or
perhaps only those who saw fit to add their name to the growing
list. What would this contribute?<br>
<br>
And if people are contributing solely for recognition - which seems
at least part of the motivation for a copyright statement, perhaps
1) they're missing the point of Open Source and 2) we should provide
a more public means of thanking the enormous list of contributors,
rather than having it scattered across thousands of files that
relatively few people will ever see.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Rich Bowen - <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rbowen@redhat.com">rbowen@redhat.com</a>
OpenStack Community Liaison
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://openstack.redhat.com/">http://openstack.redhat.com/</a></pre>
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