[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] Bug Bounty

[Benjamin Larsson]

Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> Hi
>
> As our foundation is apparently nearing fully functional status.
> Heres my first suggestion of what to do with some of the donations
> Dear gentelflamers may i present to you today my proposal of bug bounties,
> The idea behind it is to dispose of the many old bugs that dont seem to
> receive the attention they should.
> Suggested rules:
> * Only reproduceable bugs and reproduceable fixes are eligible
> * The fix must reach main ffmpeg svn (and not be reverted at the spot;)
>   that also implicates proper & clean fixes only
> * Duplicate bugs are not eligible, if a fix fixes 3 bugs only the highest
>   of the 3 bounties is payed.
> * The rules and bounties can be changed by the developers of ffmpeg through
>   a vote or by the project leader.
> * People must keep track of their own bounties and notify the treassurer
>   within 1 month of closing the respective bug.
> Suggested bountie:
> * IF      Bug older than 24 month: 40 Euro (there are 15 such bugs currently)
> * ELSE IF Bug older than 12 month: 20 Euro (there are 59 such bugs currently)
> * ELSE IF Bug older than  6 month: 10 Euro (there are 88 such bugs currently)
> If all these bugs where fixed this would coast the foundation 2660 Euro.
> In that sense it appears a nice thing, fix all bugs older than 6 month for 2k6
>
> [count of bugs from the roundup search of its webinterface]
>
> An alternative bounty system would be:
> * bugs must be at least 6 month old
> * bugs receive age_in_month*2 euro
> this would lead to a more smooth relation between age and bounty but iam too
> lazy to count how much money this would cost the foundation for all current
> bugs.
>
> Open questions:
> * Can we do this or are there some legal/ tax issues for the foundation
>   with such many payments to probably quite different people over the
>   planet?
>
> comments, flames, love letters, death threats?
>   

I like this idea. Now we just need the funds to cover all this. And I 
think we should make up something similar with regard to a Feature Bounty.

MvH
Benjamin Larsson