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Subject: Re: Signing off.

Re: Signing off.

From: Neon John <jgd_at_johngsbbq.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 00:35:54 -0500

On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 21:38:56 +0100, Andreas Stemmer
<groovingandi_at_gmx.de> wrote:

>Neon John wrote:
>> I have a number of reasons why I don't want my real name associated
>> with software. The major one being that since I live in the Lawyer's
>> Paradise, I don't want the risk of some prick not liking the way my
>> code works and coming back years later and suing me. Yes, I know the
>> risk is low but since I can almost completely eliminate that risk with
>> a 'nym, that's the route I CHOOSE to take.
>
>Just think about this once more... Imagine Rockbox was open for anonymous
>contributions and some lawyer finds a piece of code which infringes the
>copyright of some company. Who would have the problem then? Björn, Daniel and
>Linus, because they are responsible for the project and they host the project on
>their server. So you say that _you_ don't want to have your name in the sources,
>it's better if they take the responsibility for your code?

These arguments get sillier and sillier. First off, the situation
would be no different if there were some name associated with the
code. Even if the name were real, finding and doing something about
someone, perhaps in another country would be difficult. If the name
is fake then there isn't a thing to be done to that person.

Second, the simple remedy in any case is to remove the offending code.
Unless one of the project managers knowingly allowed infringing code
into the project, they have absolutely no liability, as there was no
intent.

Third, in the US, at least, there must have been some financial gain
for there to be damages. Since there is zero money involved in this
project, that is irrelevant.

Point one is the most important. Having a name on a piece of code
means nothing. It's just a collection of ASCII characters. I wonder
how many contributors have used real sounding but fake names?

John
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.johngsbbq.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Received on 2006-03-10

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