On 4/9/20 7:51 PM, Jason Cobb via agora-discussion wrote:
It appears that most of the code in the Agora GitHub org does not have a
license on it. This potentially represents an issue for future officers
who want to reuse code from current or past officeholders.
Finally! A topic about which I am somewhat knowledgeable!
For example, I have found Trigon's rulekeeping code to be extremely
helpful. However, this is technically an unlicensed use of Trigon's code
and e could (theoretically) sue me. Obviously this is unlikely - please
don't get any ideas, Trigon :) - but the possibility is slightly concerning.
Ironically, the previous Rulekeepor code, written in Haskell by Alexis,
was one of the few repositories that did have a license:
https://github.com/AgoraNomic/ruleset/blob/714663c341018a27335171b8a17a1c632e1a3a12/LICENSE
Now, not only could I get Jason in trouble for using my code, but even
more importantly I could possibly get in trouble for not including the
notice that Alexis included in eir license stating that e did not own
any of the data. The only attribution they get at the moment is a
mention in the "author" field in the individual YAML files.
Again, as Jason says, I doubt anyone would actually do something like
this, but it is possible.
I'll add a license on my assessor repo soon. More generally, is this a
problem that we should spend energy on solving? And, if so, should we
try to use the same license for all the code?
I shall put a license on my code as well. Probably a BSD or something
else very permissive, and probably not MIT because I do care a little
about attribution of the code. The problem is that everyone has slightly
different thoughts about modification, attribution, sharing under
different licenses, and whatnot. I think if we set a standard for
licensing, we ought to make it a suggestion rather than a rule.
I do think we should spend energy solving this. Litigious claims are
nothing to joke about, regardless of how unlikely they may seem.
--
Trigon
