On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 09:28:05AM +0100, Michael Tremer wrote: (...)
> I consider myself a great advocate for free software. Almost everything I do, > and certain all I can, is free software - available for anyone to use. Let me nitpick on that Free software also requires the ability to modify and distribute the modified work… > > We have spent a lot of time on this and we do not want another Maxmind. I am > not trying to make money with this project, but nobody else should be making > that money either. Being "gratis" is stricly not a requirement for FLOSS*, but being "libre" is, and the 4 software freedoms encourage to allow usage for "any purpose", including commercial use. So, IMHO, this two paragraphs are somehow conflating gratis with libre. (Additionally CC-BY-SA does not have a commercial-usage restriction, as some said already in this thread) * for example, there are some projects (in the Android App world) that sells the app in the offical store but have the sourcecode available to compile yourself on a public repository) > Since this is only a license - and people seem to rather ignore than follow > these - there is no guarantee for us that someone does things that we do not > want them to do. But in the end I have to protect my project and the other > people working on this so that we can continue doing this. > > I do not want this to be non-free, but I hope my point makes at least some > sense. if you want it to be (DSFG)-free, please choose one of the approved licenses. But I fear that your expectations are different: A (DFSG-)free license must not limit commercial use in any way, for example… > > >> * it would be nice to encourage users to give back to the project and help > >> them to help us to improve the data wherever possible > > > > Such encouragements should be part of, e.g., a README file, but not part of > > a license. *Forcing* users to contribute back would likewise make a license > > non-free for Debian usage (since that would fail the Desert Island test). > > Sorry for my noob question, but doesn’t the GPL “force” people to give back? No, it does not. We had some discussion about a different license that crossed this topic lately: https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2020/04/msg00016.html TL;DR: You only need to offer your modifications to _your_ recipients of the work, not to whom you received it from. > > Fortunately, you said "encourage", so that would be optional and hence > > good. I'm just pointing out that even ideas with good intentions (naturally > > improving a database is a plus for any user) can lead to software or data > > becoming non-free. > > A license is just letters on some paper. I had my own software copied too > often by too many people with bad intentions and I could not do anything > about it without throwing more money and time down the drain. There is this famous "use if for good not evil"-Json-license … disaster? … A true free software must even allow usage for evil purposes, not even touching the question who defines "evil"? > So, I guess we can conclude that the CC BY-SA 4.0 option is definitely > something that we would drop. Simply for that reason that it is too > complicated. Chooose any license you find suitable. Best from https://wiki.debian.org/DFSGLicenses Some people will disagree on some license being listed here*, but this is kind of official position of the project. (there are sometime more factors than a license to consider something free software) The only strong advice I would like to give is "Don't invent your own licence." *For instance, I'm not in the CC-4.0-is-non-free camp, but I would love to learn about the objections… > I always assumed that any of the GPL licenses won’t be applicable to data > (and only code). Can maybe brings some light into the dark for me? Many people believe that can be applied to data as well, incl. the FSF [1]. /me has e.g released CAD models [2] using the GPL, but I explicitly clarified that I consider this covered, no idea if that would be actual needed, though. IANAL. [1] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#GPLOtherThanSoftware [2] e.g https://github.com/coldtobi/tobis_cl260_modifications/blob/master/Z-Axis/README.md -- tobi