Interesting discussion! Unfortunately this does not change the fact that I am INCREDIBLY LAZY. Typing "License: MIT" is easy.
If you got a problem with that, send me a PR. --Josh On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 9:36 AM, Dick Hardt <dick.ha...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks for the useful anecdote Mark. > > Isaac: NOT having a license is an issue for anyone that has a requirement > for understanding the intellectual property rights of the module they are > using. > > My suggestion was to not enforce a license, but to print a warning if one > does not exist. > > fwiw: I was pretty heavily involved in the OSS movement when it started in > the 90s and have spent far to much time with lawyers who had widely > differing opinions about software license issues when I was dealing with a > myriad of them when I was running ActiveState. > > In my experience, I learned that distribution happens when someone > downloads the package, and the license needs to communicated to the person > who downloads. Inclusion of a LICENSE file in the package or in each source > file is common practice. Not having a license, or referring to a license > that is not ambiguous can be problematic. (MIT is ambiguous, Apache > License, Version 2.0 is not). > > As Mark points out, not having a clear intellectual property declaration > can render useful software useless to some people. By encouraging best > practices, we make it a non-issue. > > -- Dick > > > On Mar 27, 2013, at 10:22 AM, Mark Hahn <m...@hahnca.com> wrote: > > Even as a non-lawyer, I can assert that having no mention of any license > at all is a real problem. My company won't allow any software to be used > without a license. > > By coincidence our lawyers contacted me a few days ago and wanted to know > the licensing for the software we use. I went to google on every module > and I found four different modules with no mention of any license. I sent > a request for a license to each author (usually submitting an issue). > > I am bummed because I have gotten only one response. I will have to > remove the non-licensed code, replace it, and rewrite my code. I hate > doing work just for lawyers. > > > On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 10:14 AM, Isaac Schlueter <i...@izs.me> wrote: > >> I had no idea there were so many experienced IP lawyers on this >> mailing list! How lucky we are! It's amazing that you all found time >> to learn JavaScript, what with going to law school, passing the bar, >> and then becoming familiar with the massive libraries of case-law on >> this subject! >> >> Sadly, I'm not a lawyer, just a simple programmer. So I'm not an >> expert on these matters, and as a non-expert, I'm not really >> comfortable encoding strong opinions in npm on the subject. This way, >> npm is a tool, and humans can work out their preferences using it, >> however they like. >> >> Depending on who you ask, to be valid/enforceable, a license must be >> one or more of the following: >> >> 1. declared in every file >> 2. declared in any file >> 3. declared somewhere in a file along with the source >> 4. mentioned by the author, ever, in any context (even verbally) >> 5. mentioned along with a link to the full text >> 6. mentioned by name >> 7. exist in a database of osi-approved licenses >> 8. exist in the author's head, even if never mentioned, linked, or >> printed anywhere else >> 9. differentiate between variants of the name (ie, "BSD" is not ok, >> but "BSD-2-clause" is) >> 10. Nothing. OSS/Free Software licenses aren't actually enforceable. >> >> Yes, all of these are real statements that real people have made to >> me, very confident that they were correct. Some of those people were >> lawyers. Most were just programmers playing pretend. But as a >> non-legal-expert myself, I have a hard time telling the difference >> between a good lawyer, a bad lawyer, and a duck in a lawyer costume. >> >> npm has a "license" field, and the common pattern is to also put a >> LICENSE (or LICENCE, for imperials) file in the root of your project. >> Do whatever you want. I'm not going to get more involved than that. >> >> For me, if you send me a pull req with the same BSD license that I put >> on all my code, I'll accept it without question. >> >> >> >> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 10:00 AM, Dick Hardt <dick.ha...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> > Actually, that is not true. There are several MIT licenses, so unless >> the >> > actual license text is included, it is ambiguous what the license is: >> > >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions >> > >> > Having a LICENSE file in the package makes it clear what the license >> is, or >> > alternatively stating the full license in the README.md >> > >> > -- Dick >> > >> > On Mar 27, 2013, at 9:55 AM, Austin William Wright >> > <diamondma...@users.sourceforge.net> wrote: >> > >> > A license is something that is granted by the author at >> distribution-time, >> > it need not be included in the package contents. If an author wholly >> owns >> > the copyright on their work, they can offer the program to you under any >> > license they want, regardless of what the file inside the repository or >> > package says. >> > >> > So that paragraph doesn't actually, really, do anything - it's not a >> > clause/stipulation (that is to say, it has no "teeth"). Granted that the >> > author is able to make the full text of the license available upon >> request, >> > a package that the author says is MIT licensed, even without including >> the >> > full text, is still MIT licensed. >> > >> > On Wednesday, March 27, 2013 9:12:03 AM UTC-7, kapouer wrote: >> >> >> >> Hi, >> >> saying the author's work is MIT licensed is not enough, >> >> the full text of the license must be there too, as written >> >> in its second paragraph : >> >> >> >> The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be >> >> included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. >> >> >> >> I write this here because i see countless node modules in this case, >> >> whose authors probably believe their software to have a very liberal, >> >> free, and open-source license - but they have de facto no license at >> all. >> >> >> >> Jérémy. >> >> >> >> PS: because i see one module per day in this situation >> > >> > >> > -- >> > -- >> > Job Board: 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