
Legal Code In a Version Control System? - gasull
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/10/03/0346257/Legal-Code-In-a-Version-Control-System?from=rss
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ggchappell
Really, this is a non-issue.

All they have to do is post any revision of the bill as soon as it is
available. Then someone can write a bot to watch the site, download any new
revisions, and put them in a VCS repository. This would be perfectly legal,
since U.S. Govt. works are public domain. And no one would have to teach some
senator what a VCS is.

In any case, the original objection is a just cop-out, isn't it? Apparently
some senators want to _hide_ the contents of the bill from the public. That's
the real issue here.

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roundsquare
Wait, why do you want to have "someone else" do the version control? It seems
reasonable to me that the US Govt should do it. I mean, it wouldn't be
senators doing this anyway, it would be some assistant.

But its true, the original objection is a cop-out.

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ggchappell
> why do you want to have "someone else" do the version control?

I don't, really. Certainly, in an ideal world, the U.S. Govt. should do it.

But in the real world that isn't going to happen unless a bunch of senators
start understanding what a VCS is, and, personally, I think that is extremely
unlikely.

But why worry about it? As long as we can get them to post the bills when they
come up with them, anyone who wants to can do the VCS thing.

