Relicensing (bits of) CC: Tweaked

[SquidDev]

I've been wanting to do this for years, and seriously considering it for about 4 months now, so might as well get the ball rolling somehow!

The Problem

When ComputerCraft was originally open sourced, it was released under the CCPL (ComputerCraft Public License), a derivative of the MMPL (Minecraft Mod Public License). Unfortunately, both the MMPL and CCPL have a couple of issues, which range from irritating to gaping holes:

• It's not a standard OSI-approved license. While in some sense this is purely a cosmetic issue, it has stopped several people contributing, and also blocks us from participating in some initiatives such as Modtoberfest.

• Code licensed under the CCPL can only be used in other Minecraft mods, and that code must be licensed under the CCPL. This means that any usage of the code in a non-mod project (including emulators or CC programs) violates the license.

  This is an incredibly restrictive clause, to the point that it's counterproductive. I can think of half a dozen (well meaning and useful!) projects off the top of my head which violate this clause.

• All dependencies of ComputerCraft must be licensed under conditions comparable to the CCPL. We inherit this condition from the MMPL, and it's definitely a problematic one. While I do not believe it's the intention, the practical outcome is that all dependencies must be licensed under the CCPL. While there are exceptions for Minecraft and the mod loader (Forge/Fabric), there aren't any exceptions for other dependencies, such as the Java Standard Library or Netty.

  This suggests that even ComputerCraft itself violates its own license, a position which is clearly untenable!

The difficulty of relicensing

Given CC/CC:T's license is somewhere between awkward and untenable, I would like to relicense CC: Tweaked under something more standard and permissive.

Relicensing a project requires getting every single previous contributor to sign off on the new license. This is incredibly hard for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, CC: Tweaked has had 98 people contribute to it. While 20-30 of these people have only committed trivial changes, which don't require permission, this is still a lot of people and will be a slow process. I remember Forge's relicensing process took months, and I don't think BuildCraft ever managed to complete theirs!

Secondly, and perhaps more seriously, this list of people includes Dan. I have raised relicensing CC with Dan in the past, and while he's been receptive, as of writing nothing concrete has happened. I think we should assume that we will NOT be able to get Dan's permission to relicense his code.

Alternatives

While we cannot change the whole mod, I do think we should aim to relicense as much code as possible under something more permissive.

I'm proposing using the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0) as the license of choice here. This is a weak copyleft license, which means that changes to the original code must be released (more or less forcing forks of the mod to remain open source) but unlike the GPL (or derivatives) is not viral, meaning it can be used in more permissively licenced projects.

In terms of actually handling the relicensing, I believe our best route here is to adapt the REUSE project's conventions: tracking copyright and licensing on a file-by-file basis, rather than a blanket license for the whole project.

I'm not entirely sure this is Correct(TM): if anyone in the UK knows a good source of legal advice for OS software licensing please do get in touch. However, I think it's a Best Effort given the current mess we're in.

In closing

I don't know if any of the above sounds remotely sensible. Would appreciate any and all feedback here!

I'm probably going to let this issue sit for a few weeks to gather some feedback, then will update this issue on whether I want to go ahead with this or not.

[MineRobber9000]

I thought I had already commented here, but apparently not! Fixing that now:

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

Additionally, I assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

[R93950X]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

[Ronan-H]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

Additionally, I assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

[wackbyte]

I also assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

[pcbzzz]

code from me was provided as public domain, dgaf

[neumond]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

[LelouBil]

I assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

[Wendelstein7]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

Additionally, I assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

---

As usual, thank you so much for the tremendous time and effort you put in this and other work you do for this project, Squid. I probably can speak for many if I say that computercraft, specifically CC: Tweaked, has had an immeasurable impact on the direction of my life, my interest in programming, the friends I currently have and the talent I'm currently putting forward in my work area. Good luck continuing this project! ❤️

[osmarks]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

[Paspartout]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. Additionally, I assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

Thank you for this project, had a lot of joy coding in minecraft with it.

[Techman749]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0

On Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 2:12 PM Paspartout @.***> wrote:

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. Additionally, I assign copyright ownership of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project.

Thank you for this project, had a lot of joy coding in minecraft with it.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/cc-tweaked/CC-Tweaked/issues/1339#issuecomment-1597570772, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABXUZIM7C6TXCCFNIJ2HWFDXMCJB5ANCNFSM6AAAAAAU6SUUXI . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[MAGGen-hub]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

[khankul]

I thought I already signed this off but I can't find my comment. Oh well.

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

[absolument]

I permit the license of my contributions to the CC: Tweaked project to be changed to the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.