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conceptualspace / yet-another-speed-dial

a modern speed dial for chrome, edge and firefox
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Update the license file #43

Open PantelicGR opened 2 years ago

PantelicGR commented 2 years ago

Greetings.

In Mozilla Firefox Addons page of "yet another speed dial" ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yet-another-speed-dial/ ) it is mentioned that its license is GNU General Public License, version 3.0 and that it's free and open source software.

So could you update the license file ( https://github.com/conceptualspace/yet-another-speed-dial/blob/master/LICENSE ) to state that the license of this addon is GNU General Public License, version 3.0 ? You may also read how to do it properly in the link below: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html

Thanks in advance.

conceptualspace commented 2 years ago

thanks for this @PantelicGR . the early beta releases of YASD were GPL but some time ago I stopped licensing it under the GPL because so many malicious derivative works were flooding the extension repositories. i need to update the description on the firefox page. the source code is obviously still open but with no special licenses currently attached until i consider an appropriate license, perhaps artistic license 2.0 which is approved by the FSF but has some qualifications around derivative distribution. im open to any comments on the subject!

SerafDosSantos commented 2 years ago

@conceptualspace I think that means that It has to be GPL also, isn't it @PantelicGR ?

conceptualspace commented 2 years ago

@SerafDosSantos if you mean other forks, if they were forked before summer 2020, then yes they must also be licensed under the GPL. Since summer 2020 I have not included a license. Any new license I provide for YASD itself does not need to be GPL (from the GPL FAQ):

"If you are the copyright holder for the code, you can release it under various different non-exclusive licenses at various times. Strictly speaking, the GPL is a license from the developer for others to use, distribute and change the program. The developer itself is not bound by it..."

My motivation for making YASD open source was mostly about guaranteeing security. Because this is an extension with fairly broad access to browser permissions, I wanted users to have an easy way to verify what it does and the ability to compile their own version from source if desired.

While I support free software (in the Stallman sense), I've questioned GPL for this project given how many shady extensions already exist in the browser marketplaces and it would be arbitrary to tack on an ad service or some link tracking garbage and distribute it in the marketplace. This might also confuse users about the security and authenticity of the real project. It's a real concern for me that someone might install "Yet Another Speed Dial (bobs edition)" and woops, their browsing history is owned by Bob.

For this reason I have been leaning towards releasing under the Artistic License 2.0. As I currently understand it, this license is open (yay!) but (1) allows contributions/patches/etc to come back upstream, and (2) prevents distribution of copies that are not substantially different. I think that accomplishes all the goals I would want from an open source license.

what do you guys think?

PantelicGR commented 2 years ago

@SerafDosSantos I can confirm that Artistic License 2.0 is a free software license according to the FSF: "This license is a free software license, compatible with the GPL thanks to the relicensing option in section 4(c)(ii).": https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

But I don't know any other details about this license (except for the info @conceptualspace has provided us) because it's the first time I hear about it.

@conceptualspace In case of a malicious modificated distribution of this or other software developers can always review and rate it as dangerous or insecure. So I think that's the way for users to be safe and I'm not sure if Artistic License 2.0 alone could help to achieve that. But it's your choice as a developer and I'm glad that you chose a free license for this software.