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fffaraz / awesome-cpp

A curated list of awesome C++ (or C) frameworks, libraries, resources, and shiny things. Inspired by awesome-... stuff.
http://fffaraz.github.io/awesome-cpp/
MIT License
58.74k stars 7.77k forks source link

Switch the license to CC0 #449

Open vmarkovtsev opened 6 years ago

vmarkovtsev commented 6 years ago

The current license of the project is "do what you want to". While we really get the message, unfortunately, it means little from the legal point of view. I suggest to switch to https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ It is still "do what you want to" but the lawyers get the message too.

shlomif commented 6 years ago

I'd like that as well. +1

eXpl0it3r commented 6 years ago

It's just a list, what legal problems are you running into? 😆

vmarkovtsev commented 6 years ago

@eXpl0it3r since the current license is legally equivalent to proprietary, one of the authors can demand the removal of all his or her contributions. If that claim is not fulfilled, it is possible to complain to GitHub hq for copyright infringement and eventually delete the project completely. And yep, it happened before.

eXpl0it3r commented 6 years ago

First of all I'd argue that a link and a very short description can really be declared as "work" as such copyright on it is probably not holding, then again IANAL.

Second, what's the problem if someone wants their commits removed? Just comply and then submit the links yourself. Nobody holds copyrights on links.

And for the completeness sake, I think it's important to note, that CC0 and things like Unlicense only work, because they explicitly remove the copyright from the work. Generally what you actually need to "protect" against copyright claims is something called a Copyright Assignment Policy or similar.

At the end of the day, whether it's one or the other has zero impact. But I guess we both don't have anything better to do right now. 🤔 😄

vmarkovtsev commented 6 years ago

You are talking about Contributor License Agreement. Sure, in some countries it is required, and in some countries an implicit agreement holds and all contributions are licensed under the current license automatically. This is my knowledge from the Linux Foundation guys, and they advised (unofficially of course) to not even try to play this game :)

fffaraz commented 6 years ago

Can we actually try this before I add CC0? Add a link from one of the open issues with 'help-wanted' label and I'll merge it. Then ask me to remove your "work" and I'll refuse. Let's see what happens when you complain to GitHub.