Making Sense Of Git In A Legal Context

Authors

  • Armijn Hemel Owner at Tjaldur Software Governance Solutions
  • Shane Martin Coughlan OpenChain Project Director

Keywords:

Copyright, Authorship, Open Source Software

Abstract

The Git revision control system does not enforce correctness of data but instead is reliant on correct inputs for correct outcomes. Git records potential authorship rather than copyright ownership and this means that an additional process layer is needed to ensure fidelity and accuracy of data. The core implication is that the “git blame” tool does not show potential authorship with enough granularity to make clear decisions and additional review is required to determine potential authors of code contained in any Git repository.

Author Biographies

  • Armijn Hemel, Owner at Tjaldur Software Governance Solutions

    Armijn Hemel is an active researcher of and internationally recognized expert in open source license compliance and supply chain management. He studied computer science at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, where he pioneered reproducible builds with NixOS. In the past he served on the board of NLUUG and was a member of the core team of gpl-violations.org. Currently he is a board member at NixOS Foundation.


  • Shane Martin Coughlan, OpenChain Project Director
    Shane Coughlan is an expert in communication, security and business development. His professional accomplishments include spearheading the licensing team that elevated Open Invention Network into the largest patent non-aggression community in history, establishing the leading professional network of Open Source legal experts and aligning stakeholders to launch both the first law journal and the first law book dedicated to Open Source. He currently leads the OpenChain community as Project Director.

Downloads

Published

2018-03-30

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Tech Watch

License

The most restrictive licence we will accept for submission is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) SPDX identifier CC-BY-4.0

How to Cite

Making Sense Of Git In A Legal Context. (2018). Journal of Open Law, Technology & Society, 9(1), 19-33. https://www.jolts.world/index.php/jolts/article/view/121