Should Fedora Legal issue an opinion on this? This affects a lot of
upstream projects used by Fedora.
A number of people (not lawyers) have seen the new github Terms of
Service as incompatible with GPL, CC-BY and other free/libre licenses -
and therefore recommend removing all affected content immediately.
Examples:
Recommend removing content:
https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10_e20170301-tg.htm#e20170301-tg_w...
http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/removing_everything_from_github/
New TOS are innocuous:
https://www.earth.li/~noodles/blog/2017/03/github-tos-change.html
My (IANAL) opinion so far (from #spf(a)irc.perl.org) :
(01:48:09 PM) SDGathman: ScottK: My reading of the new TOS is that *IF*
you don't bother to include an explicit LICENSE in a repo, it has an
implicit BSD license.
(01:48:53 PM) SDGathman: Maybe he is worried he might accidentally
upload a repo with no LICENSE ?
(01:50:57 PM) julian: I doubt that a git hoster's TOS can legally force
any license on your code without you explicitly declaring it.
(01:51:27 PM) julian: unless they, say, explicitly create a `LICENSE`
file for you stating that license.
(01:51:35 PM) julian: and you don't remove/replace it.
(01:55:01 PM) SDGathman: Mainly, the TOS explicitly says that by
uploading, you grant github the right to reproduce your content to
provide their service, *and* grant other github users the right to
"fork" the content.
(01:55:33 PM) SDGathman: There is no implicit license to distribute
beyond github.
(01:56:11 PM) SDGathman: If you don't want people to fork your repo,
maybe it shouldn't be on github? (Or you can buy their private
commercial service.)
(02:16:32 PM) lennyvaknine: or bitbucket :)
(03:03:48 PM) ScottK: One of those posts (or one referenced) says
bitbucket is similar.
(03:04:25 PM) ScottK: sdgathman: OK. I didn't have a strong opinion, but
wanted to make sure you were aware.
(03:07:10 PM) SDGathman: The main takeaway is, just like github warns
you, make sure your repo has a license before uploading. When you create
a new repo on github, they have a menu of standard free/libre licenses
to put in your empty project from the getgo.
(03:07:52 PM) ScottK: And yet, so many don't have it.
(03:09:15 PM) SDGathman: And in that case, the github TOS says it has an
implicit BSD like license.
(03:10:53 PM) SDGathman: Which isn't so bad - unless you are a
commercial company and don't want a competitor grabbing your code just
before the commit that added the LICENSE.
(03:12:35 PM) SDGathman: I always start with GPL, and add PSF or other
looser license later if needed.
(03:13:13 PM) SDGathman: It took a while to cultivate that habit...