Make use of a proper and clear Licensing

[Dragnucs]

Hello,

Thank you for the great and kind work your are doing. Please keep up the good work.

You are currently not using a clear licensing. Even if your work open source, it is unclear what we can actually do with it. My goal is to get this beautiful application in the F-Droid FOSS only android catalog.

I suggest you first start by adding a LICENSING.md or COPYING.md page where you put your licensing or at least add a LICENSING paragraph there. Just using a Terms of Use paragraph in the README.me isn't good practice.

Then, the second suggestion is to separate the code base from the data. Source code should be better under A GPLv3+ or AGPLv3+. And then data can by given an appropriate Creative Commons which doesn't dishonor the Holy Quran by making benefits from it. CC-BY-ND-NC naturally applies to Quran text itself and recitations.

• Data got from tanzil.net are under CC-BY-ND is the only problem. But I will try to convince F-Droid team to make an exception.
• Data from quran.com-images are GPL which is great.
• Data from www.everyayah.com and thus from versebyversequran.com are CC-BY-NC because it is Quran too.

Finally, every thing can be GPL'd except the actual true Quran content.

Some links to help you decide choosing a license, even if I think you can't choose anything else than GPL because of the images from quran.com-images:

• http://choosealicense.com/
• https://creativecommons.org/choose/

Thank you for your consideration.

[ozbek]

Images and data files should not be relevant for this cause (i.e., for listing the app at F-Droid) as they are not bundled with the app, but rather downloaded by the end user.

What do you think?

[ibnharoon]

Have anyone read the waqf license? http://ojuba.org/wiki/waqf/license. I wonder if we could use similar license.

[Dragnucs]

@ozbek This is great. Thanks for that info, it makes then the task less difficult. @ibnharoon This seems to be only appropriate for data not software.

So I think you should just opt in for GPL because of quran-images. Also if you are technically allowed to choose another one, I guess you'd like GPL.

List of Open Source licenses List of Free licenses

Edit: Topic about android-quran on f-droid forums

[ahmedre]

Quran Android was started as an open source project with the intention of being something people can contribute to, users can look at, and perhaps even serve as a starting point for other Quran apps (a brother ported the app to Windows Phone, for example, another adopted it for Turkish users, etc).

that having been said, several years later, i am not sure if it was the right idea. the biggest thing is that there have been a few instances of people taking our code, adding ads on top and bottom of every Quran page, and redistributing it (while not changing the contact info, not hosting the images on their own, etc) - so taking our work, using it in a manner disrespectful to the Quran, making money off of it, costing us money (for hosting), adding work for us (we get the complaints from the support emails), and blaming us all at the same time.

as thus, while GPLing the code base is ok, I am not sure if, in the long run, it will be something we will keep open or not.

as you said, data has to be under CC-BY-ND - because it's Quran, so we shouldn't modify it, etc.

i am interested in your thoughts insha'Allah. jazakumAllah khairan.

[Dragnucs]

I just thought of a solution. While the application is already separated on too, The too parts can have different licensing, we do agree about that.

So my solution is very simple:

• Code is under GPLv3+. This would force people to contribute back their forks.
• Data is under CC-BY-ND-NC. The NC clause just disallow making money of the data.

You just then make it clear that you can't make money by displaying adds or selling the application. This should be clearly stated on the website that hosts the data.

Then where ever you see any abuse, you just report it to google and they will take it down. I doubt even if they ever investigate anything. Just name an application saying that it infringes your right and they take it down.

So while the fork is open source, (GPL :+1:), you can easily verify that they pull data from your server, and tadaa.

[Dragnucs]

So what have you decided to do?

[shilluc]

So? any news on this matter? I love this application but I don't have the play store, so I must install it from the apk. The problem is that method doesn't permit automatic updates (I have to watch the repo for new releases). I really hope, it can be added to f-droid.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

[ahmedre]

@Dragnucs sorry for the insanely late reply - anyhow, your solution sounds reasonable to me. can you submit a patch (or at least point me to the right direction?) i know that to do one or the other, i'd just need the respective license file into the code - is there anything i need to do to have both?

[Dragnucs]

@ahmedre Sorry for my late reply too. I stopped checking github regularly.

To apply GPLv3+ License, you only need to include the COPYING file and, preferably, add the licensing notice header in each source code file.

Please see this repo which uses GPL and this other one which is an android application too. This last one, conversations, is in F-Droid, which means it is an approved free software and does what is needed to be considered so.

[ahmedre]

closing since the app is no longer open source.

[shawnl]

F-droid has a great Bible/Torah reading app, and it would be nice for it to have this great Qur'an reading app too

https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/net.bible.android.activity

[ozbek]

I think, this should probably be addressed sooner than later. Even if not for for F-Droid, an app like this needs a clear and more apparent licensing. @ahmedre, what do you think about GPLv3+? That still would apply only for the source code. The data files are not bundled, hence, not relevant.

[ahmedre]

I am not against it - my only concerns are:

1. people not messing with the data (and it seems like that isn't a problem),
2. we are paying hosting for the servers, etc, and these licenses all allow for free commercial use - if we leave that as is, anyone can download the app, add ads all over it, and re-distribute it, costing us money (using our servers, bandwidth etc), using our name (making people think our app is spam and not use it), etc.

if you can suggest a solution for the second issue, i am good with doing this.

update - i just re-read @Dragnucs's comment:

Data is under CC-BY-ND-NC. The NC clause just disallow making money of the data.

i am good with this.

[ahmedre]

@Dragnucs since CC-BY-ND-NC means "you can't sell the data" (therefore you can't really sell the app by extension, right?) - should I just make Quran's license more permissive (MIT) and request that people don't use audio files from our servers?

[ozbek]

Is not MIT for source code/software and CC is for data? How/why do you want to use MIT for data?

[ahmedre]

sorry - let me clarify - the data should be CC-BY-ND-NC - completely agreed.

what i meant was, since that's the case, should I make Quran's code under MIT (with the requests that people respect the data license and don't use our servers for hosting).

[ozbek]

Ah yes, a project can have multiple licenses: code in MIT, data in CC-BY-ND-NC.

[ahmedre]

yes - so wondering if we should do MIT instead of GPLv3 for the code

[ozbek]

Yeap, let's hope @Dragnucs will be able to comment on that.

[Dragnucs]

MIT is a lax license and allows for people to fork the project and publish it under a proprietary license. They may do it just after changing the name, icon and design and get credit for the work, or they may actually improve the application but not contribute back their contributions. Since this is a great application any contribution is needed.

Publishing the application under GPLv3+ is the best way to go since it requires people to contribute back their improvements by forcing them to publish their work under GPL too.

Additionally, the GPL allows you to sell the application. Many application are GPL'ed and are paid-for in the play store while free/no-cost elsewhere. Or, are in two exact and same versions; a paid and a no-cost one. Allowing people to easily contribute money if they want to. A good example is the application conversations

Regading the data, it is the Holy Quran, it is the work of God. It doesn't belong to any body. In a perfect world, it should be in the public domain --a free culture material. But since you want to enforce the moral obligation of not selling or altering the words of God, a BY-SA-ND is sufficient while not really a free-culture approved. BY-SA-ND-NC is more restrictive.

If I understand your concerns, you are worried about bandwidth. A simple solution is the usage of mirrors. I would be happy to host a mirror of the text and voice data. We would then dress a list of mirrors and pick one randomly/allow user choose one at the first run and use it to download. The mirrors-list can be updated from the official applications web-site in addition to the mirror itself.

In my personal opinion, the Holy words of God should be in CC0 (free domain) and everyone shall be judged for his actions by God.

To summarize, all data under CC-BY-SA (-NC/-ND) and code under GPL. Having the data downloaded after the application is installed would make the application free software. Even if you chose CC-BY-SA-NC, you can sell the applications. It doesn't restrict you, it restricts other people forking your work!

[ahmedre]

jazakAllah khairan @Dragnucs - i'll update the docs to mention that data is not ours and is under whatever license the people who own it have placed it under (usually some sort of waqf license).

[Dragnucs]

@ahmedre Thank you very much. May Allah reward you for the great work you do.

[ahmedre]

waiyyakum and jazakAllah khair for your help with this!