Re: Why are so many great packages not trying to get included in GNU Emacs?

[Stefan Monnier]

> It is worth saying that while the process of getting copyright
> assignment is clunky, it is not insurmountable. However, the process of
> working out whether someone has copyright assignment already is a total
> pain.

I'm lucky enough to have access to fencepost.gnu.org where the
`copyright.list` file is kept, so I can look it up fairly easily, but
for those who aren't so lucky it's indeed a problem.

> It should be possible to check automatically whether commits coming in
> from any git repo are from someone who has assigned copyright. That
> would, at least, remove the hassle in the case where the papers have
> been done.

I think for privacy reasons we can't distribute `copyright.list` itself.

But we could maintain a list of people who have signed the paperwork,
built from publicly available information, i.e. from the Git log of
emacs.git and elpa.git.  While not being on that list wouldn't be
a guarantee that paperwork is needed, it would still be helpful,
I think.

Any taker?


        Sefan