[Geany-Devel] RFC: New Custom Filetypes Repository

[Lex Trotman]

On 20 December 2015 at 19:43, Frank Lanitz <frank at frank.uvena.de> wrote:
> On 20.12.2015 06:04, Lex Trotman wrote:
>> Sounds like a reasonable idea, but it triggered me to ask about
>> licenses and copyright.  Imagine my feigned horror when I discovered
>> none of Geany's filetypes has a copyright notice or license for its
>> use.
>>
>> So I am claiming copyright and Enrico and Colomban, the invoice is in
>> the mail :)
>>
>> The wiki has a blanket "cc share alike" license notice in the footer,
>> so thats better than nothing, though with no copyright owners
>> identified just who is giving this license is questionable.  But its
>> better than Geany.
>>
>> We need to make sure that the license is transferred to the new repo
>> as well, and then I think its a good idea.
>
> We put the complete repo to GPL2+ and all PR automatic have that license.

Hi Frank,

"The repository" is not useful, as soon as I clone or download a
tarball its no longer part of "the repository".

As for PRs, anything submitted that can be reasonably understood to be
intended to be incorporated into Geany code is also understood to be
licensed by the Geany license for the file it is incorporated in.

But these filetypes files are whole files, that have no copyright
notice or reference to a license.  Some useful information from the
FSF:

"You should put a notice at the start of each source file, stating
what license it carries, in order to avoid risk of the code's getting
disconnected from its license. If your repository's README says that
source file is under the GNU GPL, what happens if someone copies that
file to another program? That other context may not show what the
file's license is. It may appear to have some other license, or no
license at all (which would make the code nonfree).

Adding a copyright notice and a license notice at the start of each
source file is easy and makes such confusion unlikely.

This has nothing to do with the specifics of the GNU GPL. It is true
for any free license."

In particular note that no license means it cannot be used, not that
it is public domain.

Since conf files accept comments there should be no problem with
putting the usual header in the filetypes files, just a quick Python
script away :)

Will look at it if I get bored soon.

As for changing the license of stuff off the wiki, unless it has a
license that says we can do so, or we know who owns it and get their
approval we can't legally change it.

Cheers
Lex

>
> Cheers,
> Frank
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.geany.org
> https://lists.geany.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devel
>