This isn't so much a question, as it is a request for the CNCF/TOC to review and possibly reverse this policy. While I and many others choose to use their legal name when contributing to projects, there are many reasons why someone might choose to use a pseudonym while contributing. Examples of some of those reasons and the harm that a "real names" policy can create are discussed in the EFF's open letter to Facebook, when Facebook introduced their real name policy in 2015 [1].

Pseudonyms are also used regularly when publishing copyrighted works. When used in the book publishing industry, they are commonly known as "pen names". The U.S. Copyright Office [2] (where the CNCF is based) and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office [3] (where I am personally based) both affirm that use of a pseudonym is permitted.

I'm sure there are others who have more expertise in the subject who could provide more reasons and context, but I personally feel like this is an unnecessary barrier to contribution and may exclude talented contributors from our projects.

Cheers,

Christoph Blecker

[1]: https://www.eff.org/document/open-letter-facebook-about-its-real-names-policy

[2]: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ32.pdf

[3]: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr02281.html?Open&wt_src=cipo-cpyrght-main&wt_cxt=learn#copyrightInformation

On Sat, Jul 2, 2022 at 3:04 PM Davanum Srinivas <davanum@...> wrote:

Hi Folks,

There was a query from one of the projects about Pseudonyms for DCO and CLA. The CNCF staff has clarified the current policy:

- https://github.com/cncf/foundation/issues/379

- https://github.com/cncf/toc/commit/4b5d5049bce9719bff4b10939389204bc0493557

If you have any questions related to this policy, please chime in.

thanks,

Dims

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Davanum Srinivas :: https://twitter.com/dims