On Wed, 13 May 1998, Jason Thorpe wrote:

>On Wed, 13 May 1998 16:16:09 -0400 
> rbraun@cstone.net (Rolf Braun) wrote:
>
> > IMHO, that's really a nit to pick given that the diffs will be used to
> > patch source files that DO have the copyright notice. I think the reason
> > nobody's sued FreeBSD over this is that nobody at Berkeley is insane enough
> > to pick nits like this.
>
>..for small diffs, maybe.  But, say I'm the copyright holder on a file
>which carries my copyright and license notice, and it's "this year's" (i.e.
>I won't be updating the notice when I add new code).
>
>Now, say that I implement some MAJOR new feature.  Let's say the amount
>of code is non-trivial.  Using an "anonymous CVS" type service, someone
>would be able to lift that code _without_ getting the copyright and
>license notice.  Is that right?  I don't think it is.
>
>The point is that it's not just UCBs license that we're trying to protect.
>As a project, I think we have the responsibility of trying to protect _all_
>of our contributors, as well as The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. itself.
>
> > I guess this could be worked around while still using diffs if every line
> > in the copyright header were given a timestamp or build number each time
> > the file was modified. Then diff would have to include the header each
> > time. Hmm.
>
>Now you're talking about modifying the behavior of RCS... "oh joy".  What
>if notices are spread throughout the files?  How do you tag these.  It's
>possible, but a pain :-)
>
> > >Disclaimer: IANAL.
> > 
> > Hmm? What's that one stand for? :)
>
>"I am not a lawyer."
>
>Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
>NASA Ames Research Center                            Home: +1 408 866 1912
>NAS: M/S 258-5                                       Work: +1 650 604 0935
>Moffett Field, CA 94035                             Pager: +1 650 428 6939

As the person who started this by commenting that I like FreeBSD's
use of CVSup let me first appologize to Jason for bring this old
debate to the foreground.

The let me say that what I want is a CVS tree, and CVSup and anon CVS are
simply mechanisms to get me that.  Is it possible to some how use
sup to sup a CVS repository?  I understand the copyright problem but
sup transfers the whole file copyright and all doesn't it?  Could it be
set up to sup me the whole CVS respoitory?

---------
Christopher R. Bowman
crb@ChrisBowman.com
My home page