Re: Why are so many great packages not trying to get included in GNU Emacs?

[Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@russet.org.uk>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> It is worth saying that while the process of getting copyright
>> assignment is clunky, it is not insurmountable. However, the process of
>> working out whether someone has copyright assignment already is a total
>> pain.
>
> I'm lucky enough to have access to fencepost.gnu.org where the
> `copyright.list` file is kept, so I can look it up fairly easily, but
> for those who aren't so lucky it's indeed a problem.
>
>> It should be possible to check automatically whether commits coming in
>> from any git repo are from someone who has assigned copyright. That
>> would, at least, remove the hassle in the case where the papers have
>> been done.
>
> I think for privacy reasons we can't distribute `copyright.list` itself.
>
> But we could maintain a list of people who have signed the paperwork,
> built from publicly available information, i.e. from the Git log of
> emacs.git and elpa.git.  While not being on that list wouldn't be
> a guarantee that paperwork is needed, it would still be helpful,
> I think.

I don't understand this logic. If most (although not all) of the
information in copyright.list can be gleaned from running git log, or
looking at AUTHORS, where is the privacy issue?

What not ask everyone when they submit their papers, if they are happy
to be public, along with a list of their commonly used aliases, emails
and so forth? Put this information up on the web, along with a RESTful
API. Add some command line tools, so that people can add it to the CI
tooling.

Phil