[hindi_flick] Request for Attribution

[kilacoda]

Hello, I opened a PR a while back (#2791) which I wasn't able to work on during that time and was subsequently closed. It appears that a couple months back someone opened another PR (#3445) based on my work but without any attribution whatsoever to me, and any references to my original code scrubbed.

While I am happy to see that someone made a proper PR for the keyboard and get it out to Keyman users, I was hoping to have the copyright name and maintainer status be assigned to me since I worked quite hard on it. Please let me know if making a PR for this purpose would be suitable.

[mcdurdin]

Hi @kilacoda, I have taken a look at the two PRs, and yes, it certainly looks like the user "Froingo" who created the keyboard (and has subsequently deleted their GitHub account) took your work and passed it off as their own. I am sorry we didn't spot this when the PR was submitted. Please do go ahead and create a PR with the correct attribution.

From my perspective, given this other keyboard author has deleted their GitHub account, the copyright should be assigned to you. "Froingo" assigned copyright to SIL Global, but we would much prefer to have the right author there.

If you like, you could also rename the keyboard. For continuity, we need to keep the old keyboard in the repository, so you would have to copy it (Keyman Developer's 'Clone Keyboard Project' function under New Project makes this pretty straightforward). Add a 'related package' in your new keyboard .kps file (Details tab in the Package Editor) that deprecates hindi_flick, and add a DEPRECATED.md to the hindi_flick folder explaining why it is deprecated (and including a link to the renamed keyboard). As an example, see gff_amharic.kps, and the package it deprecates, gff_amh_powerpack_7/DEPRECATED.md.

[LornaSIL]

@kilacoda do you want to do this or do you want me to?

If you want me to, how would you like it handled?

1. Use the existing hindi_flick and change the copyright.
2. Clone the keyboard and rename it (to barakunji). Then deprecate hindi_flick.

I'm happy to handle it either way.

[kilacoda]

Hi @mcdurdin @LornaSIL ,

Thank you for your prompt response to this matter! I'll think about what I'd like to do and I'll put in a PR sometime later this week.

[shen1jgh]

@kilacoda The keyboard is under the MIT License (“anyone can use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell the software”), which does NOT require attribution. The layout is substantially different from yours, especially in vowel placement. You will not have attribution for hindi_flick. If you want attribution for your work, > submit YOUR layout! End of discussion.

[mcdurdin]

@shen1jgh please be courteous in discussions in this repository. I do not know who you are. What is your relationship to hindi_flick? What claim do you have to it?

You are also very wrong. Attribution IS required by MIT:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

Attribution is a key part of a respectful open source community. The anonymous author of hindi_flick very clearly took @kilacoda's work as a starting point. They did not provide any attribution, and then they deleted their GitHub account. Now, if the author of hindi_flick had not deleted their account, perhaps we would have been able to have the discussion with them. But as they have deleted their account, we will treat the hindi_flick keyboard as abandoned; an alternative would be to remove the hindi_flick keyboard from the repository, but we hesitate to do that as that is harmful for end users.

(From a technical perspective, @kilacoda, we should consider if there are layout differences as @shen1jgh claims, as layout changes would have an impact on existing users. It may not be appropriate to replace hindi_flick in that case, but just to submit your keyboard separately; we would add a link between the two keyboards and an attribution message to hindi_flick)

[mcdurdin]

I should also note that the original author assigned copyright to SIL Global, so we can reassign copyright to whoever we see fit; see hindi_flick/LICENSE.md:

Copyright © SIL Global

[mcdurdin]

@NunHen only warning: please make sure you review the code of conduct and write helpful and constructive comments.

[LornaSIL]

Thank you for your prompt response to this matter! I'll think about what I'd like to do and I'll put in a PR sometime later this week.

@kilacoda did you look at the layout and decide how it needs to be handled?