[Numpy-discussion] Interesting discussion on copyrighting files.

[Charles R Harris]

Worth a read at A&D <http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6867#more-6867>.

Chuck

[j***@gmail.com]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 11:28 PM, Charles R Harris <

Post by Charles R Harris
Worth a read at A&D <http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6867#more-6867>.

Thanks, it is worth a read.

Most of the time when I see code copied from scipy or statsmodels, it is
properly attributed.
But every once in a while (like just now) I see code in an interesting
sounding package on github where I start to recognize parts because they
have my code comments still left in but don't have an attribution to the
origin.

It's almost ok if it's MIT or BSD licensed because then I can "borrow back"
the changes, but not if the new license is GPL.

This is to the point in the discussion of seeing modules or functions that
got isolated from the parent package.

Josef
(slightly grumpy)

Post by Charles R Harris
Chuck
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[Nathaniel Smith]

Post by j***@gmail.com
On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 11:28 PM, Charles R Harris

Worth a read at A&D.

Thanks, it is worth a read.
Most of the time when I see code copied from scipy or statsmodels, it is
properly attributed.
But every once in a while (like just now) I see code in an interesting
sounding package on github where I start to recognize parts because they
have my code comments still left in but don't have an attribution to the
origin.
It's almost ok if it's MIT or BSD licensed because then I can "borrow back"
the changes, but not if the new license is GPL.

I'm not sure I fully agree about the GPL thing (I understand and
sympathize with how annoying it is, but when we fight for BSD
licensing then what are we fighting for if not for the right of random
people to take our stuff and without letting us "borrow back"
changes?), but more importantly it should be noted:

People who take MIT/BSD licensed code and strip off the attribution
are actually violating the license. This is pretty much the only thing
you can do that violates the license, but they're doing it. Better
practice is to keep a list of places where code was taken from, and
the licenses governing its use, in your LICENSE.txt file:
https://github.com/pydata/patsy/blob/master/LICENSE.txt
https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/COPYRIGHT

-n