Copyright assignments and the MAINTAINERS file

[Mark Mitchell]

Recently, Paolo Bonzini added himself to the MAINTAINERS file with a 
note that said:

 > Of course, approval for my patches will consider that I do not have my
 > copyright assignment in place yet.

After some consideration, RMS and the GCC Steering Committee have 
affirmed that nobody should be listed in MAINTAINERS unless they are 
covered by a copyright assignment that permits them to commit code to 
the repository.  (The assignment could be an individual assignment or a 
blanket corporate assignment or some other suitable instrument that 
would allow us to commit changes from that person.)

We understand that sometimes it takes a while for the FSF to process 
assignment paperwork, but we have to live with that.  Our policy is very 
clear: no code is committed to the repository without an assignment.  We 
do not think it's a good idea to list people in MAINTAINERS who cannot 
contribute code.

The "Bug Database Only" accounts are an exception, and there might be 
other exceptions.

Also, if there are people in MAINTAINERS who no longer have a valid 
assignment (perhaps because they changed jobs and did not get new 
paperwork filed), we should remove them.  I'm not sure exactly how to do 
that, though.

I should also make clear that this is not in any way meant to be a 
criticism of Paolo; we'll look forward to the FSF processing his 
paperwork!  Paolo, would you please remove yourself from MAINTAINERS 
until the paperwork comes through?

Thanks,

-- 
Mark Mitchell
CodeSourcery, LLC
(916) 791-8304
mark@codesourcery.com