Re: plagiarism of reiserfs by Debian

["Martin Pool" <mbp@sourcefrog.net>]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 23:22:36 -0400, Glenn Maynard wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 12:25:39PM +1000, Martin Pool wrote:
>> "We don't care what the author wants, we have the legal right to
>> change what we like" is not a good message to send.  Even if you don't
> 
> Thankfully, Debian isn't sending this message.

For me (as an author whose software is in Debian) this is exactly how
it comes across.

Some people here apparently delight in pissing off upstream authors
who object to the way their software is modified.  There are plenty of
posts saying that Debian can do what it likes, and precious few
acknowledging that Hans ought to have any say in what is done to the
software he wrote.  

Authors have a moral right (and a legal one in some places) not to
have their work mutilated.

I personally would not have put such a large and informal notice in my
software, but perhaps Hans has good reasons, such as promising the
sponsors that they would be prominently acknowledged.  (That seems to
be required by some research grants.)

Debian should not stomp all over the author's intentions if it is
reasonably avoidable.  The alternatives do not seem to have been
adequately explored.

> > It ought to be obvious that removing a author/sponsor notice would be
> > likely to offend.
> It's not obvious.  Removing a sponsorship notice is something I'd do
> without a second thought; it's nothing more than advertisement and
> it's just as annoying to me as a banner ad.

I say "it ought to be obvious", because Hans put the message in there
intending it to be prominent, rather than (say) putting it in a doc
file.  It is reasonable to assume that he cared about putting this
message in front of everyone who used it.  If you can't understand why
removing it would annoy him then I really doubt your ability to
cooperate with other people.

-- 
Martin