Re: [Patch 05/10] OvmfPkg: Add SafeIntLib and BmpSupportLib to DSC files

[Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@linaro.org>]

On 8 February 2018 at 01:35, Laszlo Ersek <lersek@redhat.com> wrote:
> On 02/08/18 00:48, Kinney, Michael D wrote:
>> Laszlo,
>>
>> The BmpSupportLib content was from contributions from
>> a capsule related branch.  However, the BmpSupportLib
>> can be used for UX capsules as well as other places that
>> conversions between BMP and GOP BLT buffers are needed,
>> so it is a more generic feature.  The SafeIntLib was also
>> based on content from the same capsule related branch but
>> also has uses other than capsules.
>>
>> Yes.  I need to add Signed-off-by for Sean.

I will note once again that our signed off by deviates from other
usage in the industry.

Usually, a sign off is not an assertion of authorship. It means that
the submitter is able to submit the code under the license that covers
it.

In our case, it means authorship, which is why we as
reviewers/maintainers add 'reviewed-by' not 'signed-off-by' like we do
in the linux kernel.

So what if I want to merge code that is available under a suitable
license, but the author is not available to give his sign off, or
there are many (hundreds) of authors etc etc? The whole point of open
source licensing is that we don't *need* the explicit sign off of the
authors, because the license tells us what we can and cannot do with
the code.

I guess this is also related to the DCO vs contributed-under tags, but
in general, I think adding the sign off of people who are not involved
in the actual upstreaming of the code is wrong, and it is perfectly
fine for the author not to be in a s-o-b line.

-- 
Ard.