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Python documentation in DocBook

Martin v. Loewis martin at v.loewis.de
Thu Nov 14 12:45:31 EST 2002 
anton at vredegoor.doge.nl (Anton Vredegoor) writes:

> But still a *donation* should not require the sender to identify with
> such extreme security precautions.

In addition to Michael's comments (you need to be able to talk to the
submitter), there is also the issue of copyright. The PSF currently
discusses requiring formal papers for contributors, which would raise
the barrier even more. These procedures are needed to legally maintain
ownership of Python. Otherwise, some contributor (anonymous or not in
his contribution) could claim that we have stolen his software, and
that make an end to Python as free software. Or some organization
could claim that the contributor has stolen their software and
contributed it to Python.

This is, unfortunately, a requirement that springs up when you develop
valuable free software: there are always people who will take
advantage of you, unless you are careful.

So anonymous contributions are clearly out of question.

> Maybe I am completely on the wrong track here and in that case:
> If someone could remove this little mental barrier for me, preferable
> without using brain surgery, my changes of being able to contribute
> documentation and source code fixes would increase dramatically.

I don't quite understand your concern: Is it that you need to identify
yourself to SourceForge? In that case, there is not much we can do,
except for sharing our believe that SourceForge will operate sensitive
with your private data, and not reveal it to anybody.

Regards,
Martin
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