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

[Clément Pit-Claudel]

On 13/05/2020 00.07, Richard Stallman wrote:
>   > Currently, the way you answer such a question is that you look at
>   > the commit, try to determine the author, and check a list of
>   > people who have assigned copyright to see if the author is in it.
> 
>   > This process is cumbersome, because few have access to the list.
>   > One way to make it smoother is to add an API that gives access to
>   > that list.
> 
> I would like to make that easier.  

Thanks a lot.  It would be great.

> That may be complex.  We don't
> publish the list, for privacy reasons.  We don't want to offer
> the public a way to probe the list.  

Maybe we can publicize a part of the list which would not violate privacy?  
When I signed my copyright papers, I answered yes to a question that said 
"Would it be acceptable for us to publicize your contribution by microblogging 
that you are contributing, and listing your name in our monthly newsletter?".  
I think it is safe to assume that those who answered yes to this question do 
not object to appearing on a public list; correct?

>   > Indeed, currently, when you assign copyright to the FSF, you sign
>   > a document with a GPG key.  The FSF could sign that key to
>   > indicate "we have received copyright papers for this author".
> 
>   > Then, to verify "do we have papers for the author of this commit",
>   > anyone could check "is this commit signed with a key signed by the
>   > FSF"?
> 
> At first glance, this looks good to me.  It would be necessary
> for people to study it to make sure it doens't have problems.

Note that with this scheme, it would be possible to reconstruct parts of the 
list, by looking for keys signed by the FSF.  So, if knowing a list of address 
emails that have signed FSF copyright papers is an issue, then this scheme 
won't solve it.