[coreboot] Real name policy

[tomli at tomli.me]

> A lot of people whos opinions I respect have commented on this and I 
> thank them for their time but that being said I still don't understand 
> how a "real" name policy helps avoid problems, it isn't as if the 
> coreboot leadership meets someone in real life and asks them to present 
> a passport which is then verified by a handy federal officer.

I agree.

Same concerns here. I failed to see how a "Real Name" policy would help
solve the following problems.

1. There's nothing preventing a developer to use a forged name.

2. Even if all developers are registered with their IDs, there is still
nothing preventing developers to copy and paste GPL/BSD code and commit
them into the coreboot repository, and as far as I know, a great deal of
code snippets are published only with a random online handle. It is entirely
possible for coreboot developer to include some code from some free sofware
project, which is published pseudonymous.

To avoid these problems, reusing code under a free software license should
be forbidden in coreboot, to this point, one purpose of free software is
already lost. Otherwise, all developers should be required to investigate
before reusing any code so only legitimate code is reused. I don't think
it is practical.

3. A "Real Name" policy doesn't transfer the copyright of individual developers
to the project manager. It is generally believed the FOSS projects with
centralized copyright have much higher chance and confidence to prove or solve
a copyright issue on the legal ground. The effectiveness of a "Real Name" without
signing the CLA is limited.

Disclaimer:

1. I haven't contributed any code to coreboot but working on related project and
may do it in the future.

2. The name I used for most of my projects, including this name, is a nickname and
has zero legal validity.

Happy Hacking,
Tom Li
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