[coreboot] [PATCH] support for nuvoton WPCE775x/NPCE781x devices (update copyright)

Sun Jul 25 08:00:47 CEST 2010

Hi Peter

Thanks for the comments , this is all new for me and I did not know about the "Signed-off-by",
so thanks for pointing that out.
Regarding the footer there is nothing much I can do since I'm not adding it. I assume that it
is added automatically by the Nuvoton mail server.

Amit Maoz
Advanced PC Division
Nuvoton Israel, P.O.Box 3007, Hertzlia B, 46130 Israel
Phone : +972-9-9702266
Fax   : +972-9-9702001
Email : Amit.Maoz at nuvoton.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Stuge [mailto:peter at stuge.se]
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 3:50 PM
To: IS30 Amit Maoz; David Hendricks; coreboot at coreboot.org
Subject: Re: [coreboot] [PATCH] support for nuvoton WPCE775x/NPCE781x devices (update copyright)

Hi Amit, David, list,

Amit.Maoz at nuvoton.com wrote:
> This is the same patch as before (2010/07/14) just with an updated
> copyright notice.

Thank you for the contribution from Nuvoton, Amit!

I'm sorry about this belated feedback, but better late than never..

Like Carl-Daniel I am very happy that this work was committed, and I
would like to point out a few things to keep in mind, should you wish
to contribute further to the project.

It's important that the copyright notice is correct, thank you for
fixing this! Another thing that is also important is the
Signed-off-by: which in this case came from David who created the
patch.

Please have a look at
http://www.coreboot.org/Development_Guidelines#Sign-off_Procedure for
the details about Signed-off-by. The point of the notice is to
demonstrate that whoever sent us this patch really was allowed to,
and really intended to, publish this code under the license used for
coreboot.

If one person is sending a patch that was developed by another
person, this becomes particularly important. The patch should then
have Signed-off-by: from both the person who wrote it, and the person
who is sending it.

Another thing that could be considered related to this is the email
footer in your email, Amit. I know that you did not add it, but it is
still somewhat problematic when sending patches to an open source
project:

> The privileged confidential information contained in this email is
> intended for use only by the addressees as indicated by the
> original sender of this email.

The email footer strongly and directly contradicts a Signed-off-by:.

A Signed-off-by: with your name says that you can release this patch
under the open source license that coreboot uses, but the email
footer says that this email is privileged and confidential.

> If you are not the addressee indicated in this email or are not
> responsible for delivery of the email to such a person, please
> kindly reply to the sender indicating this fact and delete all
> copies of it from your computer and network server immediately.
> Your cooperation is highly appreciated. It is advised that any
> unauthorized use of confidential information of Nuvoton is strictly
> prohibited; and any information in this email irrelevant to the
> official business of Nuvoton shall be deemed as neither given nor
> endorsed by Nuvoton.

We all know what little good these email footers do, but at the very
least I think it would be wise to not introduce this contradiction
for contributions to the project. It would be very good if you could
make sure to send any patches in the future without such an email
footer.

David Hendricks wrote:
> Thanks for sending the patch out, Amit!
>
> Since I wrote this particular patch, I'll go ahead and do the sign-off on
> it:
> Signed-off by: David Hendricks (dhendrix at google.com)

Good stuff. Like Carl-Daniel I'm happy to see it go in! Thanks for
sending the Signed-off-by: - otherwise the patch might not have been
taken care of.

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> Acked-by: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net>
> and committed in r5667.

Thanks to Carl-Daniel for ack and commit! I would've done it today
otherwise. :)

//Peter

===========================================================================================
The privileged confidential information contained in this email is intended for use only by the addressees as indicated by the original sender of this email. If you are not the addressee indicated in this email or are not responsible for delivery of the email to such a person, please kindly reply to the sender indicating this fact and delete all copies of it from your computer and network server immediately. Your cooperation is highly appreciated. It is advised that any unauthorized use of confidential information of Nuvoton is strictly prohibited; and any information in this email irrelevant to the official business of Nuvoton shall be deemed as neither given nor endorsed by Nuvoton.