Re: [RFC v2] MEDIA: Driver for ON Semi AR0521 camera sensor

From: Greg KH
Date: Thu Jun 24 2021 - 10:42:46 EST


On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 04:34:06PM +0300, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 03:22:48PM +0200, Krzysztof Hałasa wrote:
> > Hi Greg,
> >
> > Greg KH <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> >
> > > +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> >
> > > Putting the above line on a file _IS_ a legal declaration that the file
> > > is released under GPL-2.0. It's pretty simple :)
>
> Greg, on a side note, the discussion originated from
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-media/m3r1gt5hzm.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxx/. I'll
> quote Krzysztof so the discussion doesn't get split across multiple
> places:
>
> > > To spend time reviewing this code, I want to know it will be mergeable,
> > > and that requires a SoB line. That's a blocker I'm afraid.
> >
> > So how do you propose to solve the situation, in which my driver is
> > rejected, but another persor takes it, makes changes (btw breaking it),
> > and presents it as their own, and it's accepted? This is a paid work and
> > I'm required to put in my employer's copyright over the code.
> > I could have made this error once - but no more.
> >
> > The code will be mergeable, as I already wrote. Why would I bother
> > otherwise? But I cannot let that history to repeat itself.
>
> Your opinion on this would be valuable too.

I would not waste my time on code that does not have a signed-off-by on
it, otherwise the developer is obviously saying they do not want to
merge this as-is. And I think we all have plenty of code from
developers that actually want to have their patches merged.

thanks,

greg k-h