Re: Can I have a package with no real name of upstream maintainer?
Christian Surchi <csurchi@mclink.it> writes:
> I have a package (tkpgp) from munitions.vipul.net archive and the
> upstream maintainer wants distribute only his email and his
> nick. The program is GPL. Can this package stay in Debian, without
> real name of author in debian/copyright?
An interesting question. Personally I'd doubt it: what sort of
guarantees do we have that the anonymous guy who claims copyright
really has copyright?
A concrete scenario: by the time J. Random CD Manufacturer has
pressed 100.000 sets of Potato disks, somebody stands forward and
asserts the copyright to the package, demanding that he be paid
a humongous license fee or the disks are destroyed. Now, who can
JRCM sue for making the false claim that the program was GPL?
If the identity of the upstream maintainer who claimed GPL was
known, things would be relatively easy - the culprit can be held
responsible, and even if he's nowhere to find Debian has acted in
good faith and made any reasonable effort to identify the sources
of the rumors we act upon.
However, if Debian started accepting code based on anonymous hearsay
that whoever wrote this means it to be under GPL, and a scenario
like the above came true, Debian's general reputation would go way
down.
However, it is another question if the anonymous maintainer simply
maintains code that some earlier author or maintainer (who was a real,
identifyable person) put under the GPL.
--
Henning Makholm "Jeg mener, at der eksisterer et hemmeligt
selskab med forgreninger i hele verden, som
arbejder i det skjulte for at udsprede det rygte at
der eksisterer en verdensomspændende sammensværgelse."
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