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Author Topic: Licenses Hell  (Read 1051 times)

mercurhyo

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Licenses Hell
« on: March 30, 2020, 05:17:46 pm »
as I read this forum (and others around programming) I noticed something MORE AND MORE annoying =

years flying away, I see (let say) fights about licenses (at min warm and warn discussions) growing and growing everywhere. To my opinion, if you want to publish your work, that is based on top of third party libraries, you today need to spend hundreds and hundreds hours to take care others licenses and tiny small lines on footers!

so the major problem when you do not reinvent the wheel and use third party libs'n' components, is THAT YOU NO MORE ARE A CODER BUT A JURIST!

TO ME it BRAKES! creativity and CAN break talented people on their programming course.
I'll put some question here :

1) did it happen to you to stop some devlopment because of licensing labyrinth?
2) did you already bypass licenses (be honnest please, no need details) and pehraps feel guilty?
3) are you happy with such a virtual world where "free" is 1000 X more complex than a "jail"?

thank you by advance, for any comment, idea, behaviour suggestion! et cetera
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 05:24:06 pm by mercurhyo »
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mercurhyo

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2020, 05:26:13 pm »
my short answers :

1) YES
2) YES
3) NO
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MacWomble

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2020, 05:35:24 pm »
What's your problem? As a god of fortune telling, surely you have all the answers regarding the licenses without checking...  :o :D

Oh sorry, you wrote 'divination', my translator gave another meaning to the word
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 05:39:10 pm by MacWomble »
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PascalDragon

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2020, 05:44:03 pm »
1) did it happen to you to stop some devlopment because of licensing labyrinth?
2) did you already bypass licenses (be honnest please, no need details) and pehraps feel guilty?
3) are you happy with such a virtual world where "free" is 1000 X more complex than a "jail"?

1) No
2) No
3) I'm happy to live in a world where I can make sure that my code is protected while I can nevertheless provide it openly to users.

Ñuño_Martínez

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2020, 06:24:11 pm »
In my open source project I always use The zlib/libpng License:  It is short and it is clear (it is Open Source, it is free, I don't care if your computer dies and you must keep my software as OSS).

There are a bunch of similarly short ones, as The MIT License, with few differences.

There are others that aren't too long but are a bit longer that are worth of to read, although not always are good (read the NASA Open Source Agreement and tell me).

If I use 3th party OSS then, whell, if it isn't as short as MIT or zlib ones I just don't read them, but I only link if they're GPL/LGPL (the only ones I really read and understood, time ago) or a short license than the ones mentioned (and I agree, of course).
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 06:29:57 pm by Ñuño_Martínez »
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eljo

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2020, 02:18:16 am »
1) yes
2) no
3) No problem I stay away from unknown licenses or the ones that target end users instead of developers.

dbannon

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2020, 02:31:13 am »

I agree with mercurhyo that reading long and convoluted licenses is not what I am here for.  Its particularly hard when people decide to write their own license, you have to read it carefully and just hope that bit you don't understand does not apply to your usage. Who can afford to consult a lawyer ?

Another, very annoying license issue is how the software tool most Linux users use, typically (and badly) names 'Software' describes any application as having a 'Proprietary' license if the package does not come from their own repository.  Even it the package is stamped, correctly with one of the open licenses.

I would feel very uncomfortable releasing code with a more restricted license that the tools I used to write it.

But I don't write for a living.

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ASBzone

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Re: Licenses Hell
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2020, 03:53:07 am »

My short answers:

1. Not as a developer, but occasionally as a user
2. No.
3. There is a price for freedom. Always.

Additional info:

A. Software development is not really how I make my living -- not directly -- so my perspective is probably different from many of your other respondents.

B. As an implementer of software, I've had to read tons of licenses over the years.  Sometimes I feel like I do real licenses for a living!

C. Unfortunately, while many people will do the right thing when they know what it is, many will not.  And they have to be induced to play nice.   If not for the licensing options, lots of libraries and other code would not even be available to us.    Not having access to robust libraries also has a negative effect on creativity.

D. You can always choose to work with certain types of licenses, and not with others, just for your own sanity's sake.


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