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wlandsman / IDLAstro

Astronomy related procedures in the commercial IDL language
https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/idlastro/
BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" License
144 stars 64 forks source link

This code should have a license #1

Closed nathantypanski closed 9 years ago

nathantypanski commented 10 years ago

Normally, when people publish open-source works, they include a file named LICENSE or COPYING in the project root that makes clear the terms under which the software was released.

The GitHub help manuals have a FAQ on this issue:

You're under no obligation to choose a license. It's your right not to include one with your code or project, but please be aware of the implications. Generally speaking, the absence of a license means that the default copyright laws apply. This means that you retain all rights to your source code and that nobody else may reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from your work. This might not be what you intend.

GitHub's choosealicense.com offers more information on the matter:

You retain all rights and do not permit distribution, reproduction, or derivative works. You may grant some rights in cases where you publish your source code to a site that requires accepting terms of service. For example, publishing code in a public repository on GitHub requires that you allow others to view and fork your code.

It looks to me like you probably intend this code to be used by others. Your readme says:

The success of the IDL Astronomy User's Library depends upon the willingness of users to give as well as take. Submission of relevant procedures is strongly encouraged. Equally important is the notification (or correction) of programming bugs or documentation errors.

Encouraging people to submit code is great, but not if you don't give them the legal rights to do so. As things stand, programmers outside your organization will likely avoid contributing code for fear of legal risk. But your readme sounds to me like you'd prefer to encourage contributions!

Please take a look at choosealicense.com and consider giving people the right to make modifications to this work.

ghost commented 10 years ago

According to the FAQ, this code is licensed under the BSD-2 license. However, the FAQ entry is inconsistent. From the entry:

The IDL Astronomy Library procedures are in the public domain under the BSD-2 license.

If it is in fact BSD-2 licensed, then the code cannot be in the public domain. The former places specific restrictions on the code whereas the latter means no restrictions. Some clarification here would be great!

nathantypanski commented 10 years ago

@LogicalKnight

It looks like the text was updated. It now states:

The IDL Astronomy Library procedures are available under the BSD-2 license.

It's strongly preferable (required, even? Otherwise the meaning of the license is unknown), if the BSD 2-clause license is used, to provide clarification on the <owner> and <year> fields in the license. If we find specifics on this information then we might be able to include a license file in the source code, which goes a long way toward encouraging healthy contribution.