Re: kernel.org status: establishing a PGP web of trust

Arnaud Lacombe
2011-10-05T20:36:53Z

Hi,

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 05, 2011 at 04:00:39PM -0400, Arnaud Lacombe wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 6:39 PM, Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
>>...
>> > Each time a patch goes through him into the kernel, he certifies that
>> > his real name is Andrew Morton.
>> >
>> > If that would not be his real name, it would make him somewhere between
>> > completely untrustable and punishable at court.
>> >
>> Under which jurisdiction ? Under which law ?
>>
>> IANAL, but US copyright law does recognize the use of pseudonym for
>> copyrighted work[0], without requirements to disclose one's legal
>> name.
>
> I am not talking about copyright law.
>
> When you add a Signed-off-by: to a patch you have to use your real name
> (see Documentation/SubmittingPatches for details).
>
> If violating that would be considered fraud or some other crime in some
> jurisdictions is likely a non-trivial question.
>
One might still question the legality/constitutionality of such a
statement. AFAIK, Greg KH, author of the sentence (in af45f32d25c) is
not a lawyer.

Have the DCO clauses been legally validated ?

- Arnaud

note: to avoid doubt, I am writing this mail under my legal name.