On Wed, Jun 05, 2024 at 08:04:49AM -0000, Stuart Henderson wrote: > On 2024-06-05, Peter J. Philipp <p...@delphinusdns.org> wrote: > > I have been made aware of hearsay that someone took my open source code > > protected under the same license as OpenBSD and sold it for a lot of money. > > There is nothing in either the ISC license used in OpenBSD (or in the > GNU public license for that matter), to prevent people from doing that. > People who receive the code under that license are of course allowed > to pass it on though. > > The ethos of the license typically used for OpenBSD code is basically > "do what you want with this code" (but expressed in a way that tries to > cover all the bases). If you want to restrict commercial use then it's > the wrong license to use. > > > I have no proof of this personally but I ask you to help me find evidence of > > this. There is not much I can do about this, except if the person or > > persons > > were stupid enough to change the license to their names. > > If they've removed or changed the license, that isn't allowed (though they > can add an additional license for changes). Actual enforcement might well > be difficult/expensive though.
That's why I'm spreading the word for people to keep their eyes open for me as just gathering proof is difficult for one person alone. They would surely report pirate copies of OpenBSD if they existed as well. In regards to forking and leaving the license in place that is 100% ok with me. I even advocated this to others. It is the removal of the license that is the offence. Otherwise we'd all be using Microsoft OpenBSD written by Bill Gates himself by now (sarcasm). If the person who did this is living in a communist country there is little chance that I would reach them as WIPO has no jurisdiction there. However through sanctions and tariffs large countries like the US can cause pressure on the other system as we've seen with the whole risc-v debacle which I'm sure isn't over yet. It needs to be said that Open Source does not mean free for all to do whatever they please. You are still locked into the IP laws of your country and if the software has a license you must abide to that. Removing Copyright and putting your own license on it, is something an idiot who has no clue would do. And I plan to sue whoever damages the intellectual property system that I've built on top of with Open Source. I believe in this system. Best Regards, -pjp -- ** all info about me: lynx https://callpeter.tel, dig loc delphinusdns.org **
