Open source license usage on GitHub

Re:Open source license usage on GitHub by Alupis on Monday March 09, 2015 @05:18PM (#9174145)

I might be in the odd camp here, but I think Github/Bitbucket et al should force the user to pick a license when creating a new repo.

Even if there's an option that says "proprietary", I'm OK with that...

It would get rid of all the ambiguity of stumbling upon a very wonderful project but being unsure if you can use it due to no explicit license.

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Re:Open source license usage on GitHub by andrewguenther on Monday March 09, 2015 @06:47PM (#9174597)

I wrote a paper on this in grad school. A few of these services (I cannot recall which and I don't have a copy of the paper handy) actually state in their ToS that you must include an OSI approved license in your repo.

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Re:Open source license usage on GitHub by willnorris on Monday March 09, 2015 @08:15PM (#9175047)

Google Code has always been exclusively for open source projects. From https://code.google.com/p/support/wiki/FAQ#Hosting_Your_Open...

> Can I use Google Code to host projects that aren't open source?

> Nope. Open source projects only.

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Re:Open source license usage on GitHub by rmc on Monday March 09, 2015 @05:24PM (#9174213)

Propriatory means you can't download it form Github, or fork it. Which would defeat the point.

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Re:Open source license usage on GitHub by adrusi on Monday March 09, 2015 @05:51PM (#9174416)

Well, no, If you publicly release the source code to your proprietary software, people can download it and tinker with it, so long as they don't distribute it whether it's modified or not.

Unreal Engine, for example, has its entire source available free of charge online, but it's proprietary software and you can't make changes or use it to make a game unless you obtain a license from Epic Games (which is now free of charge in many cases, but you still have to go through the process of getting it).

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