Wolfgang Wegner wrote:
Dear Scott, Wolfgang,
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 02:02:43PM -0400, Scott McNutt wrote:
... for a two line bug fix?
This is hardly a valid reason to claim copyright on the module.
This practice will only discourage the contribution of original work to the project. Nobody wants to have their work hijacked in such a manner.
So you really think your practice will encourage anybody to submit a clean patch for a bug he spent days (or weeks) to find?
Many contributors have done so, many times, for many years, across many different architectures, myself included.
The amount of time I have spent doing so is insignificant when compared to the benefits I have enjoyed from the generous contributions of _others_. It's one of the small ways I can express my gratitude for the privilege of using such contributions.
But this is all irrelevant and off point, no? I am very happy to hear that someone can benefit from the code I spent many, many weeks to develop in my spare time ... code that I have offered freely. So don't enjoy the benefit, then claim co-ownership after adding two lines. At the very best, that's presumptuous.
And yes, if that was considered accepted practice, I doubt I'd make any significant original contributions again.
Best Regards, --Scott