Ancestors

Toot

Written by Chronocide on 2024-09-11 at 09:53

If someone forks your project and removes all references to you as the original author, does that violate the GPL-3 license?

Reading the license in full, I'm none the wiser as it's quite complicated legal language, but I like to believe it's against the spirit of the license?

If not, what changes should I make where this becomes a requirement? I have no issue with people using my code, but it does annoy me when people pretend it's their own.

[#]fosstodon #foss #opensource

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Descendants

Written by geraldew on 2024-09-11 at 10:27

@chronocide the GPL licenses do allow you to embed extra clauses in your created work as long as they don't conflict with the GPL. At first glance an attribution requirement clause does not seem to inhibit the four freedoms.

Of course some other licenses already make that explicit.

The focus in the GPL is the granting of freedoms, going into quite some detail.

Maybe look at how it allows for added clauses and examples of that being done.

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Written by geraldew on 2024-09-11 at 10:30

@chronocide Even aside from that, for copyright to function, the identity of the creator cannot be changed (although the rights that go with that can be on sold to another party).

That makes it fraud for someone else to claim they created it, precisely because who really created it is not tied to the words in the work, original or changed.

This is similar to how copyright applies even without any license embedded in the work.

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Written by tmw on 2024-09-11 at 10:56

@chronocide not an expert here, but section 7b looks to allow what you are asking about, if you add yourself to the notices and add in this requirement. 7b allows for "Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed by works containing it"

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html

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Written by geraldew on 2024-09-11 at 11:11

@tmw @chronocide perhaps 7c is pertinent here:

c) Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material,

Even better would be a good example of where someone has written and added such a clause.

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Written by geraldew on 2024-09-17 at 14:16

@tmw @chronocide

FYI - revisiting somewhat later in some spare time, I did find a useful discussion in which there are examples.

Being both about additional clauses and a rationale for thinking that the standard GPL already covers the non-removal of attribution.

Not that I'm not saying it's an easy read unless familiar with licensing and copyright concepts.

Link is:

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/4577/does-gplv3-require-attribution?answertab=votes#tab-top

and which btw I got via this other link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/freesoftware/comments/afflo3/gplesq_licenses_that_require_attribution/

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Written by geraldew on 2024-09-17 at 14:25

@tmw @chronocide

To attempt a summary, the idea in brief is:

• that you add a clause requiring attribution to 7c

• and then clause 5 enforces its perpetual inclusion for all modifications where it says:

c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7 additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts ...

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Written by Chronocide on 2024-09-17 at 15:37

@geraldew @tmw Thank you for putting in this effort, it's genuinely appreciated.

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