References:
http://drupal.org/node/732562
http://drupal.org/node/724586

From what @vgarvardt says you have created this module with his code without his permission. Though there may not be legal issues at hand, this is really bad form if it is true. Can you please shed some light on this?

Comments

JacobSingh’s picture

JacobSingh commented

If credit is given (and it is) there is nothing illegal here. GPL code may be mod'd and dist if it contains attribution AFAIK.

greg.harvey’s picture

greg.harvey
Primary language English
Location Occitanie, France
commented

I agree with Jacob - I think Vladimir should just ask Dick for co-maintainership once he has a CVS account. I don't see why Dick would refuse such a request, given it doesn't seem like he ever intended to pass the code off as his own.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Title: Socially bad behavior with using code without permission? » Stolen code?

I am not sure it's required any permission to create a module from code found on any comment, or in attachment to those comments. It's also true that there are no statements about the license for the code attached to comments (or shown in comments), and somebody could take it is not GPL licensed by default.

What I find strange is to create a project, and then report that it should be used in rare cases; it sounds like creating it, and admitting that it should not have been created.

zzolo’s picture

zzolo commented
Title: Stolen code? » Socially bad behavior with using code without permission?

I fully understand that there is no legal issue here, but I think there is room for social implications, but I totally would like to hear form @dixon_ before making any complete judgement.

Change title as "stolen" seems to make people react strongly.

greg.harvey’s picture

greg.harvey
Primary language English
Location Occitanie, France
commented

@kiam, regarding the module, from my understanding (which is limited, I admit) this is no more dangerous that core's PHP Filter. It's one of those tools that shouldn't normally come off the rack, but every now and again you're really grateful it exists. ;-)

greg.harvey’s picture

greg.harvey
Primary language English
Location Occitanie, France
commented
Title: Stolen code? » Socially bad behavior with using code without permission?

Dammit, accidental title change. ;-)

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

I don't find anything strange in a module that evals PHP code that is saved in a database; as a matter of fact, I am maintaining a module that does the same thing to allowing users to create custom input formats.

IMO, who created the project acted too quickly, considering that he saw the code in a project queue where the maintainer suggested to create a new project for such code; I would have waited to see if the user who opened the report was going to create it.

I would think that would be great if who created the project would agree to make the original creator of the code co-maintainer of the project.

greg.harvey’s picture

greg.harvey
Primary language English
Location Occitanie, France
commented

I would think that would be great if who created the project would agree to make the original creator of the code co-maintainer of the project.

+1 =)

zzolo’s picture

zzolo commented

I would actually suggest the full maintainer, but would like to hear more before making a call.

dixon_’s picture

dixon_
he/him
Primary language English
Location France
commented
Status: Fixed » Active

I had no intention what so ever to steal credit from vgarvardt. His name was credited on the project page from the first day when this project was created. As @JacobSingh and @greg.harvey states, I don't see any wrong in that.

@kiam As the code was distributed (read attached in a comment) by vgarvardt the code must be licenced under GPL. Thats the whole point of the GPL licence. Anything other than GPL would be a violation of Drupal's GPL licence.

The reason why I created a project of it was because we needed this little puzzle piece for a client project. And instead of keeping the code "private" a made a public project of it here on d.o and credited vgarvardt for it. I consider that as best practice.

I have no personal interest in taking credits in some way for this and have no problem in handing over the maintainership of this module. So I've already talked with Gerhard about this and he will give vgarvardt CVS access and make him lead maintainer of this project. I'll stay as the co-maintainer.

dixon_’s picture

dixon_
he/him
Primary language English
Location France
commented
Title: Socially bad behavior with using code without permission? » Make vgarvardt the lead maintainer of this project
Status: Active » Fixed
zzolo’s picture

zzolo commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Just to clarify my involvement and my thinking.

@dixon_ my intentions were never to attack you in this. I never thought that you were acting in any sort of malicious manner. And I have tried my best not to pass judgment without getting all sides to the story, though I have probably failed at this some. My apologies if I have offended you, @dixon_ or anyone else.

I have never claimed that there is a legal issue here, and yes, credit was very obviously given.

My reaction to all this is based on the fact that there was no documented permission given to reuse this code. Again, I understand there is no legal requirement, but this action offends me because I think this is very bad community practice, especially in an open source community. Yes, in an open source community, code is not really owned by anyone, but accreditation and specifically being able to engage in the community (ie have CVS access) is what brings people to help contribute. I think everything was handled fine and in the boundaries of legality and agreed upon procedures, but missing that step of getting permission was overstepping community and social etiquette. I think actions like this undermine the integrity of our community, and I just wanted to ensure that our community remains strong. I never felt that @dixon_ was intentionally trying to undermine the integrity of anything, but the situation still required action, in my mind.

Thank you to everyone for opinions and help and resolving this in a reasonable manner that strengthens our community and Drupal.

heine’s picture

heine commented

As the code was distributed (read attached in a comment) by vgarvardt the code must be licenced under GPL. Thats the whole point of the GPL licence. Anything other than GPL would be a violation of Drupal's GPL licence.

The code SHOULD indeed be under the GPL license or it would violate the Drupal GPL license. HOWEVER; the only person able to license / relicense the code is the author. While the author may be in violation of the Drupal license, that doesn't give you the right to take the code and put it under the GPL.

Also, the only persons to challenge the license status of the distributed, non-gpl code would be the Drupal copyrightholders or their representatives.

(yes I realize the issue is closed and all is well now)

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

As I can see the only places where the code is claimed to be under GPL License V2+ are the repository, and the book pages. The block that reports the license for text and code does not appear in any other places, including issues queues. As already reported, the code could be licensed under a different license when shown, and then re-licensed when accepted from the maintainer of the project for which the code has been proposed.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.