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LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:03 pm
by Green_Hell
I'm suggesting all developers to License their work.

Also I'm suggesting somebody with necessary knowledge "qubodup?" to write a topic about licensing and somebody with powers to make it sticky.

If you don't agree with me then ask admin to delete this Topic and don't fight me! I'm not going to flame with any of you!

:)

reason:

Code: Select all

I think that the number of new projects started growing rapidly. Telling everybody who starts a new project to license is just wasting of time and energy. Also some people are reacting very oddly on such direct suggestions in a good faith.

YOUR CODE IS A JUNK WHEN NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT
I'm quite mean today, ain't I? :(

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:44 pm
by rude
Sure. License your work. If you don't, it will super-copyrighted, and nobody can use your code. If you want it to be super-copyrighted, write that it is super-copyrighted. (I'm sure "super-copyright" has tons of legal power).

And please, people, don't GPL your code if you make libraries. Finding out that library code is GPL is like discovering that the somewhat hot chick you just brought home is really a man.

My suggestions: MIT, ZLIB, PD.

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:27 pm
by Chman
... or BSD.

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:31 pm
by Merkoth
I agree, please license your work, even if you decide to make it public domain or use the WTFPL (What the f*ck you want public license).

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:49 pm
by An00biS
rude wrote:Finding out that library code is GPL is like discovering that the somewhat hot chick you just brought home is really a man.
Why's that so?

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 12:58 am
by mike
An00biS wrote:
rude wrote:Finding out that library code is GPL is like discovering that the somewhat hot chick you just brought home is really a man.
Why's that so?
And what's wrong with that? you know what they say: "Some traps just keep you coming back"

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 5:28 am
by qubodup
An00biS wrote:
rude wrote:Finding out that library code is GPL is like discovering that the somewhat hot chick you just brought home is really a man.
Why's that so?
Just recently I found out in this FGD Forum thread that if you interpret the GPL really strictly-like, you will have to license all code and all media that is linked* to the GPLed code inside a game under the GPL. And this is sometimes not possible, if you for example want to use media that is licensed under a GPL-incompatible license.

Games like Warsow or Space Trader however do use GPL-incompatible media with a GPL engine. (I'm not saying there is a problem with this, as IMHO it is okay to use the liberal and the strict interpretation of the GPL.)


I'll try to write a licensing recommendation text in this thread very soon, so we can discuss it a bit.

By the way, I am no professional and I won't be wanting or be able to bash you if you have questions or objections to my licensing recommendations. :)

*whatever that means exactly

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:37 am
by An00biS
qubodup wrote: By the way, I am no professional and I won't be wanting or be able to bash you if you have questions or objections to my licensing recommendations. :)
Never mind, I see now that it's not nice to force a specific license on somebody else's project ;)

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:45 pm
by u9_
May i also suggest on the forum rules that "any file you upload is released under xxxx license unless explicitly stated otherwise in the file or accompanying post."

Kind of like forcing those aware of the matter to state a license, while those that just upload surely don't want to lock their game down with copyrights, and this frees people from thinking about it.

If you are thinking maybe what they upload cannot be released to said license, but then surely they would have to state the license of content they don't own themselves, si?

Re: LICENSE YOUR WORK!

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:10 am
by qubodup
An00biS wrote:Never mind, I see now that it's not nice to force a specific license on somebody else's project ;)
It is not quite 'forcing'. One, who modifies or builds upon GPL software, should be well aware of what this means for his/her product.

If the author of a work wants the work to be only the basis for other free software, then it's just the author's decision which will likely lead to a smaller user base but it is never 'forcing'.

PySoy (a game engine that has something to do with Python) for example, is intended to be only used for free software projects. And that's fine. After all they do warn you of what their license is.
u9_ wrote:May i also suggest on the forum rules that "any file you upload is released under xxxx license unless explicitly stated otherwise in the file or accompanying post."
I am very emotional against such practices.

And there likely will be enough cases in which the developer won't have the rights over part on his assets or won't even know who has the rights on it.