Opensource License

[CodePoetSarah]

I am working on an article for opensource.com on the MiSTer project, we are blocked on using it though as much as the project is listed as opensource, there's no license information for the core project. Is this project opensource and under which license?

https://opensource.org/licenses

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions :-) we have put it on hold until we can get clarification.

On a personal note, this is an awesome project.

[sorgelig]

Different cores may use different licenses. It's not a monolith single project.

[CodePoetSarah]

Thanks, it's the main MiSTer project that doesn't have a license. It's listed as opensource on the donate page, but there's no GPL in the code. Most of the cores are legitimate opensource projects and have licenses. The main project doesn't.

[CodePoetSarah]

You closed the ticket, does this mean the project will not be opensourced or it will? having clarification either way is good enough to close the ticket.

[sorgelig]

It's open sourced. Sources are opened, isn't?
I will think about license, but it has no relation to open source.

[CodePoetSarah]

Thanks, making the sources open doesn't make it opensource, it needs a license. There are a number which could apply, the most common is the GPL which a lot of the cores use. Let me know if I can help with anyway, we often work with developers when writing articles for opensource.com so we can help if you have any questions.

[smokku]

It's a bit worse at the moment.
https://choosealicense.com/no-permission/

When you make a creative work (which includes code), the work is under exclusive copyright by default. Unless you include a license that specifies otherwise, nobody else can copy, distribute, or modify your work without being at risk of take-downs, shake-downs, or litigation. Once the work has other contributors (each a copyright holder), “nobody” starts including you.

If you find software that doesn’t have a license, that generally means you have no permission from the creators of the software to use, modify, or share the software. Although a code host such as GitHub may allow you to view and fork the code, this does not imply that you are permitted to use, modify, or share the software for any purpose.

[CodePoetSarah]

It also protects you as the originator of the project.

[CodePoetSarah]

No problem, I have canceled the article. I am happy to keep the ticket closed. I just needed confirmation one way or another.

…

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 4:04 PM sorgelig ***@***.***> wrote: I'm sick from you guys. It's my hobby and and don't need such kind of suggestions. And no, i don't need/want any publishing on opensource.com ! Level 80 of procrastination. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#110?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAFIC7T5Q6NPC4RIWNOS4XLQPS2ULA5CNFSM4IU7ZQR2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOEBYSTLQ#issuecomment-544287150>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFIC7TM47HMEIMWOQLJ5STQPS2ULANCNFSM4IU7ZQRQ> .

[smokku]

@sorgelig Please understand, that the worries we have is because we do care about this project and we want the best for it. There were nasty precedences when open source projects were forced to shut down, because of licensing issues.

@CodePoetSarah The issue here is probably because the original MiST source code that MiSTer forked from is also without the license - unfortunately.

[CodePoetSarah]

Sorry, I misread your comment, I see you added a GPL,. Thanks
This is awesome by the way, this is an excellent project. We can publish now.
Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks for sorting this out :-)