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Real Name For Open Source Development?
An anonymous reader writes "Do you contribute to open source projects under your real name or a nickname? The openness of open source can be encouraging, but software patents you have never heard of can become a nightmare if a patent troll sues for implementing 'their' scroll bar. A real name also means you end up in the big index we call search engines. An assumed name could be an additional layer of protection, but what are its pros and cons and is it worth the hassle when asked to participate in a meatspace meeting?"
Simple. Use pseudonyms such as "John Smith" or "Robert Johnson" which are natural enough to be used in the meatspace and popular enough to be a needle in a haystack as far as Google Searches are concerned. This is a popular technique for restaraunt critics and the like whose reviews necessitate unbiased anonymity.
If you use hacker-ish sounding names like CapnCrunch or Dildog then you're asking for notoriety and your ass will be laughed at in a LUG.
Sadly enough, if anybody really wanted to track you down then they'd just throw money at a P.I. or at a buddy who works for your ISP.
When in doubt, go the safe route where you have some degree of control over your personal information. I contribute to a few sites here and there, not to mention the few I run myself, and I write every single word under a pen name. There are a few reasons why I do this, mostly privacy issues related to avoiding unwarranted judgment/stigma from something I wrote. A pen name/alias/handle protects from this problem, but also has the added benefit of being able to 'reveal yourself' at a later date if you decide to forgo the privacy stuff.
That being said, I specifically choose to NOT assume an alias here on slashdot. I have my reasons for doing so, but they are of no consequence. The point is, you should think about your choice and the consequences of it. After weighing the information, if you are still on the fence, you should err on the side of caution and assume an alias.
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
If you want to be protected by the patent terms of Open Source licenses, which for example was important in the JMRI case, you need to be properly identified. Otherwise, you may have a hard time proving to some judge that you should be protected because the plaintiff should have known that you were "Blue Salad".
Also, the project should make your identity known in the software package as copyright holder. Apache is terrible about this, they strip attribution from most stuff.
And I have a problem with anonomously-donated or anonymously-licensed Open Source, because how do you know the anonymous person actually had the right to donate and you won't run into trouble down the line.
Probably the best thing you can do is assign your copyright to an organization that keeps your identity private. Maybe FSF and some of the incorporated Open Source projects would do this.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
What if you generate a PGP key and use it's ID as you "name". In that case, anyone holding the private key is essentially the copyright holder, right? ;-)
Contribute using the SHA1 hash of your real name as your anonymous nickname. If you ever want to be identified you can verify that it was you who made the contributions.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.