Re: Questions on legal name/pseudyonym

[Alison Schofield <alison.schofield@intel.com>]

On Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 11:29:19AM -0300, Bru Moreira-Guedes wrote:
> Hello Alison,
> 
> I'm glad I caught this discussion.
> 
> On Thu, Mar 09, 2023 at 08:43:49AM -0800, Alison Schofield wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 09, 2023 at 04:10:25PM +0800, Kloudifold wrote:
> > > My legal name may change in the next few years, and the Outreachy Community Member Information page said
> > > "You may use a pseudonym or abbreviate your given or family names if you have concerns about privacy.",
> > > so I use "Kloudifold" as my Outreachy name and intend to use it as signed-off name when making kernel contributions.
> > > 
> > > I would now like to ask if my contribution will be considered by Outreachy if I use a pseudonym?
> > > If not, I will use my legal name instead.
> > > If it is OK, I intend to keep contributing under the name "Kloudifold".
> > 
> > Hi Kloudifold,
> > 
> > I'm glad this came up because I needed to learn the latest on this
> > topic. My prior knowledge was 'no pseudonyms', but I see the kernel
> > has recently changed that:
> > 
> > d4563201f33a0 Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst (Linus Torvalds        2023-02-26 11:25:04 -0800 410) using a known identity (sorry, no anonymous contributions.)
> > 
> > diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> > index 7dc94555417d..fab44ae732e3 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> > +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> > @@ -407,7 +407,7 @@ then you just add a line saying::
> > 
> >         Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
> > 
> > -using your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)
> > +using a known identity (sorry, no anonymous contributions.)
> >  This will be done for you automatically if you use ``git commit -s``.
> >  Reverts should also include "Signed-off-by". ``git revert -s`` does that
> >  for you.
> 
> Do you think it could also be applied to social names? I'm not sure this
> is a known term in english-speaking culture, but in my country a social
> name is a name differing from the legal one to which trans people (like
> me) are entitled to be referred to. At least for public and some private
> services.
> 
> I have recently decided to use 'Bru' rather than my gender-marked legal
> name 'Bruno', and I am in doubt on whether this fits into the concept of
> 'known identity' (since, well, this had been a very recent change and
> it's not exactly 'known').
> 
> I have been thinking about that a couple of weeks ago.

Hi Bru,

You can read the full text of the DCO guideline and the kernel patch:

https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/659fd32c86dc/dco-guidelines.md

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d4563201f33a022fc0353033d9dfeb1606a88330

It sounds like your name change situation is within the guidelines.
(But I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV ;))

Alison

> 
> Best,
> Bru Moreira-Guedes
> Autistic & Proud
> They/them