[Sugar-devel] Issue tracking on Github?

[Dave Crossland]

Hi

On 27 May 2016 at 11:16, Devin Ulibarri <devin at ulibarri.website> wrote:

> On 05/27/2016 09:03 AM, Dave Crossland wrote:
> >
> > On 27 May 2016 at 08:59, Devin Ulibarri <devin at ulibarri.website
> > <mailto:devin at ulibarri.website>> wrote:
> >
> >     Notice from the ethics article that one big deal with GitHub is it
> >     allows developers to upload code without a license (thus being
> >     proprietary by default, even though we can all see the code).
> >
> >
> > I don't think a default libre license would be wise; for a start, which
> > one?
>
> I think the idea is to have options that someone may choose from (like
> the way media goblin lists options for copyright licenses when you
> upload a file). Each option could (should) have a description of the
> license and links to the original license text.
>

They already do this; they recently added GPLv3 to the list, although they
refuse to add the SIL Open Font License because fonts projects are such a
tiny fraction of all projects :(


> And, yes, MediaGoblin does allow for "all rights reserved" or "custom"
> license, so I imagine that GitHub could make some accordances for this.


Does MediaGoblin apply a license by default, if you don't select one?


> > Licensing is serious stuff and I think its self-defeating for the
> movement to make people less conscious of it by offering easy defaults :)
>
> Licensing **really is** serious stuff and that is exactly why people
> need to choose their license when they post their work publicly.
>
> Having no license, if someone accidentally downloads and uses the code
> without express permission, since the default US copyright law would
> have it "All Rights Reserved" it puts the people who have access to the
> code at risk of possible litigation (i.e. they could be sued later for
> using the code).


There's potential estoppel defences, but yes, I agree, that is bad.

-- 
Cheers
Dave
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