Re: plagiarism of reiserfs by Debian

[Martin Pool <mbp@sourcefrog.net>]

On 22 Apr 2003, Michael Tindal <etherscape@paradoxpoint.com> wrote:

> > Authors have a moral right (and a legal one in some places) not to
> > have their work mutilated.
> 
> I do not consider removing 20-something lines of output from a
> program whose purpose is to create a filesystem mutilating it.  By
> contrast, mkfs.ext[2,3] and mkfs.xfs do not output such messages,
> simply the status of the task at hand.  As an author, I can see how
> these messages severely hinder usability.  They would be more
> appropriate in a CREDITS or AUTHORS file.

I agree that a file would be a more appropriate location.  I'm just
asking that Debian persuade Hans rather than unilaterally removing it.

Note that reiserfsprogs-3.6.4-4.diff has in fact not moved the credits
to another file, but *removed them entirely*.  The sponsors of the
program are not mentioned at all in the Debian package.  This is
unconscionable.

> Prominently does not necessarily imply causing the program to be
> unusable.

That kind of hyperbole is not helpful.

  unusable
       adj 1: impossible to use [syn: {unserviceable}, {unuseable}]
       2: not able to perform its normal function [syn: {inoperable}]

-- 
Martin