Starting at http://irclog.perlgeek.de/parrot/2010-05-13#i_2327099 we had
a short discussion regarding the fact that at least twice recently code
from an external project has been copied directly into the parrot
repository, without retaining a copyright notice or reference to the
original project/repo that the code came from.

As Coke said, "We cannot just copy code we don't own into the repo and
claim it."  I think in both cases (code from Plumage and from Tapir),
neither of the owners had a problem with Parrot using the code -- in
fact we had both hoped to eventually keep snapshots in ext/ as nqp-rx
does today -- but that wasn't the point.

As a matter of copyright management we can't just import code from other
projects without a copyright notice (and probably a link to the original
project).  As a matter of supportability it's important to keep in touch
with the upstream project regarding bugfixes and the like.  And as a
matter of good manners, it's nice to at least talk to the original
project before copying the code.  At the very least they may suggest how
they'd prefer it be done, or in fact already have a process for working
with downstream projects harmoniously.

Does PaFo have an official policy on copying external code?  (Assuming
the license is already compatible, of course.)


-'f


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