[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc/developer: require transparency about sponshorships.

[Nicolas George]

Rationale:

* This requirement should offset a little the incentive to neglect
  design, code quality and politeness during the review process when
  done for money.

* The review process itself and future maintenance burden cost efforts
  to the whole project; knowing that sponsorship has been given, to an
  individual or to the whole project, helps evaluating if the benefits
  match the costs.

* Inclusion in FFmpeg implies implicit endorsement by the project;
  we owe to our users to disclose when this endorsement is not genuine;
  this is to relate to mandatory flagging of advertisement in mass media.

* Systematic disclosure and transparency make a stronger position
  against accusations of bias or conflict of interest for difficult
  policy decisions.

* Documenting bounties may give an incentive to new contributors
  who may not be aware of these opportunities.

Signed-off-by: Nicolas George <george at nsup.org>
---
 doc/developer.texi | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/developer.texi b/doc/developer.texi
index 5c342c9106..1d77250083 100644
--- a/doc/developer.texi
+++ b/doc/developer.texi
@@ -420,6 +420,13 @@ your name after it.
 If at some point you no longer want to maintain some code, then please help in
 finding a new maintainer and also don't forget to update the @file{MAINTAINERS} file.
 
+ at subheading Disclose sponsors and other remunerations
+If the patch is the result of sponsored work, expects a bounty or benefited
+from any kind of specific remuneration or payment, include the identity of
+the sponsors, the identity of the recipients (if it is not exactly the
+author of the patch) and the amount (or an approximation if it is not
+possible to define it exactly) in the commit message.
+
 We think our rules are not too hard. If you have comments, contact us.
 
 @chapter Code of conduct
@@ -664,6 +671,9 @@ are notoriously left unchecked, which is a serious problem.
 @item
 Test your code with valgrind and or Address Sanitizer to ensure it's free
 of leaks, out of array accesses, etc.
+
+ at item
+Did you disclose any sponsorship in the commit message?
 @end enumerate
 
 @chapter Patch review process
-- 
2.20.1