[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] Replace "Fabrice Bellard" with "the FFmpeg developers" in the banner

Stefano Sabatini stefano.sabatini-lala
Sun Feb 14 13:43:06 CET 2010


On date Saturday 2010-02-13 16:18:28 +0100, Stefano Sabatini encoded:
> On date Friday 2010-02-12 09:23:27 +0100, Olivier Galibert encoded:
> > On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 07:44:51AM +0100, Luca Abeni wrote:
> > > Jason Garrett-Glaser wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > >>>FFmpeg is a collective effort so allowing a single name in a banner is
> > > >>>not nice/fair towards the community of developers, also this is more
> > > >>>correct for example when adding a new ff* tool (yes I have in mind
> > > >>>ffprobe).
> > > >>Well, I do not think that copyrights can be changed like this ;-)
> > > >>IMHO, a change like this one is acceptable only if proposed by Fabrice
> > > >>(or at least approved by Fabrice).
> > > >
> > > >Headers do not determine who has copyright over the file; they're
> > > >simply informative.  Changing a header does not change the copyright
> > > >of the file.
> > > 
> > > From a legal point of view, you are of course right.
> > > But, right now there is a program that prints "Copyright (c) 2000-2010
> > > Fabrice Bellard, et al."; after this patch, it will print a different
> > > informative message. This is legal, but completely impolite (IMHO).
> > 
> > It may even be illegal, see GPL-2 2c.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I asked Fabrice about this patch, follows his reply.
> 
> |Hi Stefano,
> |
> |You have my approval, but remove the "et al.". Moreover, verify that my
> |name is still listed in the list of developers.
> |
> |Regards,
> |
> |Fabrice.
> |
> |Stefano Sabatini wrote:
> |> Hi Fabrice,
> |>
> |> I'm one of the FFmpeg developers and I recently proposed this change:
> |> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/104164
> |>
> |> I did propose this as I believe that names in a FLOSS project are
> |> usually a bad idea, also it looks quite unfair to me to show just one
> |> name when the project has been developed by hundreds of contributors.
> |>
> |> Anyway, apart from legalia/copyright matters on which I'm not
> |> competent at all, I would consider an impolite act to replace your
> |> name in the banner without to ask you for permission.
> |>
> |> So I'm attaching the proposed patch, let me know what you think about
> |> the application of such a change.
> |>
> |> All the best, regards.
> 
> I'm attaching an updated version of the patch.

OK to apply?

Regards.
-- 
FFmpeg = Faithful and Foolish Mean Power Erotic God



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