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Consider replacing Unlicense for media/theme assets. #16

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sofar opened this issue Sep 12, 2019 · 3 comments
Open

Consider replacing Unlicense for media/theme assets. #16

sofar opened this issue Sep 12, 2019 · 3 comments

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@sofar
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sofar commented Sep 12, 2019

https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble-theme/blob/master/LICENSE

I'm a contributor to minetest and we've had similar discussions with many contributors about mods, themes, etc.. My conclusion is that Unlicense (or, any form of Public Domain declaration) is an unfit license for media/assets, and in general is problematic due to the statement that in jurisdictions where Copyright exists, the items are declared Public Domain, which may not exist at all in those jurisdictions. This leaves a gray area for interpretation where it may not at all be usable to some users.

For media and assets, we've found the CC licenses to be ideal. While personally I feel one should always, at minimum use CC-BY licenses, even CC0-1.0 would be a major improvement over Unlicense for media, as it spells out in detail what is permitted use.

Most important Ref.: https://opensource.org/faq#public-domain

@xpoke
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xpoke commented Sep 12, 2019

As the author of the theme and it's icons I think CC0 could certainly work. I have switched to Unlicense from WTFPL which I inherited from another Mumble theme (though we don't share any assets). I found Unlicense more professional than WTFPL while still being in the same idea. CC0 also fits this category in my opinion, and is more robust.
However, I prefer short and concise licenses, and Unlicense work very well in that regard - It is not a license which ever needs to be enforced, so being legally robust is not a concern.
I leave this decision to the rest of the project members as licenses need to be compatible and I don't want to create disorder.

@Kissaki
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Kissaki commented Sep 12, 2019

However, I prefer short and concise licenses, and Unlicense work very well in that regard

I think the CC licenses do a good job of advertising simplified qualities of their licenses. The longer text is still there, but there’s a short bullet point version for each of them. It’s also a better known license, so more people are familiar with its qualities.

It is not a license which ever needs to be enforced, so being legally robust is not a concern.

I think @sofar mentioned this, and I agree: The decision is not only for ourselves, but we have to keep in mind what users are willing to use. And a uncertain grey area is certainly worse in that aspect than one that is well defined in most countries jurisdiction.

@sofar
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sofar commented Sep 13, 2019

Not mentioned is that e.g. for my work project, Unlicense, WTFPL, CC0 all make us do extra paperwork. CC-BY does not suffer from this issue. Certainly, CC0 is the best choice mentioned in the thread, and I hinted to it already in the original request.

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