Florian Weimer wrote:
How? As MJ said, it's clearly "practical" to remove the author's name in places where it would nevertheless be a grievous restriction.So you suggest that if someone approaches Debian and asks his name to be removed, Debian would ignore this request even if it can be honored, practically speaking? I think this clause mainly deals with something Debian does anyway, as a mrere courtesy.
I believe that was the intent. As stated, though, it could be abused; it doesn't restrict the erasing to just authorship credit.
The classic example here is an autobiographical work. The author could ask that all references to herself be removed from a derivative work critical of her.
In software documentation, an original author could require that changelogs or discussion of differences in design or implementation ("Original Author had it this way; the new version does it this other way") be removed.
~ESP