Please add a license

[shoyer]

The lack of an open source license stops me from using, contributing to or even seriously considering this package.

I would suggest 3-clause BSD, which is standard in the scientific Python ecosystem (including NumPy, SciPy, pandas, etc.).

[ml31415]

Consider it public domain, at least what concerns me. @d1manson what do you think?

[d1manson]

That's fine with me, yeah. Probably should add a statement of that then (in the readme at least).

[ml31415]

Fixed in afa5f3a

[shoyer]

Thanks, but "public domain" is not a great software license. I really
recommend using a standard license like MIT or BSD, which grant pretty much
all the same rights but include all the necessary disclaimers. Blame
lawyers!
On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 5:52 AM Michael notifications@github.com wrote:

Fixed in afa5f3a
afa5f3a

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#13 (comment)

[ml31415]

Yeah, lawyers, a very strange breed. I'm not really excited about worrying about licensing too much. For simplicity I suppose the best would be to go with the same license that numpy uses then.

[ml31415]

What do you think about this suggestion? It's the same 3-clause BSD-license as for numpy, the only modification is that I scratched numpy-groupies as an organization in clause 3. I don't really see us two lone developers as some kind of organization, so mentioning it there sounded somewhat strange. If that's already messed around too much with the license, I'd be fine throwing it in again.

Copyright (c) 2016, numpy-groupies developers
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
    * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
      notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
    * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
      notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
      documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
    * The names of the contributors may not be used to endorse or promote products
      derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[shoyer]

I would either include the third clause exactly or ditch it entirely -- the later is known as 2 clause BSD

[ml31415]

Given the text there https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#2-clause , I'd like to scratch the last paragraph about the views contained in documentation and whatever, which again mentions any form of organization, and seems superfluous for us anyways. Not sure why this paragraph got added explicitly for the 2-clause license, but I guess just skipping it would still make this count as regular BSD 2-clause license:

Copyright (c) 2016, numpy-groupies developers
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
   list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
   and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

@d1manson , your thoughts?

Edit: Oops, just saw your link, yeah, that makes it clear that we don't need this last paragraph, thanks.

[d1manson]

I'm fine with whatever you decide

[ml31415]

Ok, then let's pick the BSD 2-clause license as suggested by Stephan.

[shoyer]

thanks!