From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: One-click copyright assignments? Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2017 13:44:42 -0400 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1489340744 9902 195.159.176.226 (12 Mar 2017 17:45:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2017 17:45:44 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cc: rms@gnu.org To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 12 18:45:40 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1cn7Yp-0001xl-EV for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 12 Mar 2017 18:45:39 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47799 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cn7Yv-0004Jq-LZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 12 Mar 2017 13:45:45 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:50289) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cn7YF-0004JU-UX for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 12 Mar 2017 13:45:04 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cn7YC-0001aM-R9 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 12 Mar 2017 13:45:03 -0400 Original-Received: from [195.159.176.226] (port=43472 helo=blaine.gmane.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cn7YC-0001Zq-Jm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 12 Mar 2017 13:45:00 -0400 Original-Received: from list by blaine.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1cn7Xz-0005BD-3S for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 12 Mar 2017 18:44:47 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 59 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org Cancel-Lock: sha1:Et+qnBWGAK4RqBMY+BPdjesgZyw= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 195.159.176.226 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:212953 Archived-At: > This. I'm also curious to know why is the process so bureaucratic as it is > currently. Maybe there's a legal issue or something. The FSF is fairly cautious (not sure what's the best translation for "frileux") in this respect, indeed. But I agree that several parts could be streamlined without having too much impact on the legal side: - turn the initial form into a web-form. - make it so the web-form doesn't send an email to assign@gnu.org (i.e. to Donald who's already busy enough) but should instead automatically return the appropriate PDF. I understand that in some cases, a human might be needed, but we should be able to arrange for the web-form to cover 99% of the needs. Just doing that would be a significant improvement I think. The user can then immediately get the PDF, and sign it without any delay. It would still have the delay to receive the signed PDF, check it, etc... which involves a human (Donald again, AFAIK), but: one step at a time. This said, this is an FSF-issue, not specific to Emacs, so it would be better to discuss it elsewhere. Stefan > On Sun, Mar 12, 2017 at 8:08 AM, Clément Pit-Claudel > wrote: >> Hey emacs-devel, >> >> Why is the copyright assignment process for GNU software more complex than >> other similar ones ? I've contributed to various pieces of free software >> in the past, and in most cases (except for Apache) the assignment process >> was little more than a click of a button, possibly followed by an email. >> For Emacs, on the other hand, one needs to send an email to emacs-devel to >> get an off-list copy of a text-based form, then send the completed form to >> assign@gnu, then wait for a PDF (which mentions a monetary transaction of >> $1 that never actually happens), then electronically sign the form using >> PGP (possibly with an entirely new PGP key), then email it back and wait >> for confirmation. >> >> Is there anything specific to Emacs that requires the process to be this >> complicated? For example, could the entire process not be automated? >> Ideally new contributors would fill a web form on gnu.org/emacs, sign >> with their mouse at the bottom of that form, and confirm their email adress >> by clicking a link in an email. >> >> The existing process could remain in place for e.g. company-wide >> assignments, but for the common case of applying a patch to an ELPA >> package, wouldn't this make things much nicer? If this can't be done, then >> could we at least automate the part that generates the PDF form, and the >> part that checks the signature, so as to eliminate the copyright assignment >> delay? >> >> Thanks! >> Clément. >> >>