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Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:02:31 +0100
From: Ross Gardler <rgardler@apache.org>
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To: general@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: RAT can be dangerous
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On 17/08/2010 10:15, Jochen Wiedmann wrote:
> Ross, while I understand the "All it does" part I don't get the
> "dangerous" part.

There have been a number of people who have stated things like 
(paraphrasing) "IP management issues have largely gone away now we have 
RAT". I'm sure the statements are not intended to read like that, but 
for the uninitiated they do.

I'm worried that people might start thinking running RAT on code is a 
substitute for doing a proper license audit.

> I think noone has ever announced RAT as a solution.

Not announced, but it has recently been scattered in many different 
threads here. Most recently by our VP in the "radical" thread. As I say 
above I'm sure it was unintentional, I'm just highlighting a meme that 
needs to be killed.

> It is a helper
> tool. I think the recommendation to use RAT (for what it offers) is
> just plainly right. Nothing more - nothing less.

+1

My concern is people are overstating what the RAT tool does. It is *not* 
an audit tool as its name and some comments imply.

Ross

>
> Jochen
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Ross Gardler<rgardler@apache.org>  wrote:
>> I'm really worried about the growing meme that RAT is solving the IP management problem.
>>
>> It is not a solution, it is merely a tool that is useful for a very specific use case.
>>
>> All it does is do a pattern match for an Apache licence header in a bunch of files. It's really useful for checking the proper licensing of our source files.
>>
>> It does nothing else.
>>
>> Thinking RAT is helping the Incubator teach codlings how to manage IP is just plain dangerous.
>>
>> Ross
>>
>> Sent from my mobile device.
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>
>
>


-- 
rgardler@apache.org
@rgardler

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