Usenix President - Linux Needs Better Paper Trail

Anonymous Coward writes "Usenix Association president Marshall Kirk McKusick is a veteran of BSD's intellectual property scuffle with AT&T in the 1990s, and he's got some thoughts and advice for the keepers of the Linux kernel going forward, commenting: 'There isn't a well-documented ownership trail with Linux. So, they have opened themselves up to a swamp of 'he said-she said' about where code came from'."

Source

[funkdid]

I wrote it, the whole thing. Linus was my roomate at the time, he took credit for all of it. I was the one that worked with Santa Claus and the tooth fairy to develop it, not Linus! Problem solved.

paper trail?

[deft]

About a thousand geeks just simutaneously
wondered what the hell paper is.

Oddly enough, all of those thousand geeks could tell you what a scroll is.

'he said-she said'

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, this must be a typo. Linux developers arguing over the source for changes would always be; "he said-he said - then they got into a hissy fit hair-pulling fight"

Glad I could clear that up.

Re:paper trail?

[happyfrogcow]

paper trail? it's the stuff stuck to your shoe when you leave the restroom.

how this applies to Linux, I have no idea. no need for the core dump jokes... we've seen em all.

Code Slippage

[Eberlin]

Ok, so if I hypothetically had this idea to include a few lines into the kernel...I managed to slip a couple of lines of code into a "thank you" postcard to Linus eons ago. After reading it, he thought it was utter rubbish and tossed it away.

Actually, he was so pissed off about the whole stupidity that it motivated him to stay up an extra two hours hacking away. So technically, some of his code should be attributed to me, right?

Much like how some of that code should be credited to Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and a few different candy bars. So where's the documentation on that?

All the changelogs, the comments, and any other bits of documentation aren't enough. Where's the credit to the pizza delivery guy? He helped develop some of that code! Ingrates, I tell ya.

He said She said

[NodeZero]

they have opened themselves up to a swamp of 'he said-she said' about where code came from.

He said "If I tell you, i'd have to kill you".

Surely he means PDF

[Mustang Matt]

Paper? What's paper?

Re:Source

[ydnar]

Fine. We'll call you The Real Napster.

Re:Source

[MisterFancypants]

You and the "real Napster" from the remake of The Italian Job should get together and start a support group.

SCO *WILL* look foolish?

[ecklesweb]

In the end, I think SCO will look foolish.

In the end ? I like to think there's no time like the present.

Re:Source

[Anonymous Coward]

The Santa Claus Operation?

Re:paper trail?

[Nutria]

I was taught about paper in elementary school.

And that would be... an American public school?