Ownership of Samba code [Was: Re: VxFS quotas]

[David Lee]

On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, andrew morgan wrote:

> [...]
> Ack!  You are right.  Another kind soul sent me a private email saying the
> same thing.  I had quotas enabled for a while, but a system reboot turned
> them off again because I had not added 'quota' to the vfstab options
> field.

Phew!  Glad it was your problem, not mine!

> I suppose they had to map that error onto some regular errno, but "no such
> process" didn't really clue me in that quotas were disabled.  And all the
> quota utilities worked fine...

(... or appeared to work fine...)

> This server will also be running netatalk for mac users to access their
> home directories.  Would it be okay for me to use your code in netatalk?

Interesting question.  I've never looked into the details of licensing
etc.

I have always informally ensured with the director of our department that
it is acceptable for us to contribute code freely to projects such as
Samba.  We have never signed any paperwork to "donate" this code to samba:
we simply provided it (as a mark of gratitude to the folks who produce,
maintain and develop the product).  Hmmm... I wonder who "owns" it? 

Assuming that netatalk is "free" (I realise that is fuzzy), then I think
it should be OK.  (But if netatalk (or Samba Inc.!) were to be the next
multi-trillion Microsoft, then I think my employers might like to see a
penny or two in return...) 

I wonder if there is a more general point that the Samba folk could
clarify:  once code is contributed into Samba, who "owns" it?  Who can
re-use it?  Under what conditions?  Et cetera.

-- 

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