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CarterLi / iina

The modern video player for macOS with additional features and bug fixes.
https://iina.io
GNU General Public License v3.0
678 stars 29 forks source link

append changelog to fulfill the license obligation #67

Closed SilverSteven closed 1 year ago

SilverSteven commented 1 year ago

Description:

Reminding about missing "notices" for modifications on original work (violation of GPL-3.0)

Hello,

[Modification terms and conditions in license] The original work should be honored while the modifications on it should be attached with prominent notices as the license GPL-3.0 dictates. Your project is a forking project from iina/iina which adopts GPL-3.0 as its project license.
The modification terms and conditions of GPL-3.0 dictate that:

GPL-3.0:

... The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date. ...

Therefore, we think the project is obligated to abide by the modification terms and conditions in GPL-3.0.

[Violation of modification terms and conditions] We run through your history, and it turns out that you have conducted modifications to the source files of original work while didn't provide prominent notices. You have 436 commits which conduct modifications to the files of original work, all of which are not declared in README.md.
According to the license terms and conditions above, it is regarded as license violation. Thus, to avoid potential legal risks, I would suggest you carry out prominent notices for the 436 commits.

[Recommended Fix] There are 2 recommended solutions to fulfill the modification related obligation of GPL-3.0:

  1. Git Mechanism.

    • Just put a note in the top directory, something like MODIFICATION.md, or any file but the license text and NOTICES, in order to give people who follow you the most latitude to comply with the license without making a mess,
    • Write "In compliance with the GPL-3.0 license: I declare that this version of the program contains my modifications, which can be seen through the usual "git" mechanism."

  2. Changelog Text.
    Or add changelog for modification to comply with the license.

For your convenience, I created a PR with by picking up modification-related commit messages. It adds a few lines in changelog without touching the codebase. Please be comfortable to check it out.

Full details of the report you could refer to the html file attached. Hope it helps!

If there is anything wrong in this reminding, I'm sorry for my bothering, and please feel free to close this PR.

Cheers!

CarterLi commented 1 year ago

I see what your concern is.

My question is that there are 2.7K forks of original project and all forks contain more or less modifications. In addition, there should be other projects with GPL-3 licensed have the same problem.

Why only my fork is problematic?

SilverSteven commented 1 year ago

Hello Carter,

Thanks for your review.

There is no discrimination involved. The reason your fork is being considered is that it is the most popular and promising among all forks. This reminder is not meant to suggest that there is a problem with your fork, but rather to provide a suggestion to avoid potential risks brought about by the open-source license. It is just a gentle reminder, and please feel free to close this PR if it is unsatisfactory.