Talk:License

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A new license was implemented on 5-1-09. Look on the License page to see it.



The discussion below is left for posterity only




Here's a shot at a new license

Licensing Intention Statement

We want you to be able to use and build upon SWARM's efforts as freely as possible. The parts that make up SWARM were built by many different people with different ideas about how they should release their efforts to the world. Some of these parts were built by people that never even heard of this project. This is the way of "open source".

The gist of our licensing is that if you use some of our project in your own, you should tell your audience that you did so. The best way to do that is to include a statement like the following in your work: "portions based on SWARM, http://orbswarm.com".

We'd love to hear about your project. Maybe we could add your efforts to our own, or maybe we could work your project. We know this stuff pretty well. We'd love to hear from you at info /at/ orbswarm /dot/ com.

Licensing Statement: March 16, 2009

  • Portions of the software are licensed under the terms of the MIT License. Such source code is noted as such. Based on this license.
  • The portions of the project that are not explicitly covered by the GPL or MIT License, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. This includes but is not limited to schematics, printed circuit boards, CAD files, photographs, the wiki, the blog, etc. Based on this license.
  • The work of guest performers or artists are not automatically subject to the licenses mentioned previously. Such matters are negotiated on an individual basis. For example, if a guest performer adds sound clips to the orbs for a particular performance, licensing is arranged separately. Contact SWARM for more information.
  • The SWARM logos (Orblogo.png), Swarm logo stencil.jpg, the names "SWARM", "Orb SWARM", "The SWARM Project", "The SWARM Art Project", and "Orbswarm.com" are trademarked.

CC-Attribution-88x31.png


<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/us/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" property="dc:title">SWARM</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="http://orbswarm.com" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">SWARM</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License</a>.<br />Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="http://wiki.orbswarm.com/index.php?title=License" rel="cc:morePermissions">http://wiki.orbswarm.com/index.php?title=License</a>.












Previous License Discussion

At a 12-9-08 meeting, a discussion, generally led by Michael Prados, wanted to change the licensing to allow commercial re-use of the project. There was general agreement. --Lee 18:48, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

At the 6-12-07 meeting, we poured over the licensing issue and came up with the following. If I'm stating it incorrectly, someone please correct me (Lee). Also, if this is incompatible with anyone's desires, please say so. Feel free to write back in private or public. The purpose of this page is to hammer out a licensing scheme that we can all be happy with.


Proposed License Statement

GPLv3 isn't ready yet. We'll cross the GPLv3 bridge when we get there.
  • The portions of the project that are not explicitly covered by GPL or the MIT license, sections that would normally be covered under copyright law instead of software licenses, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). This includes schematics, PC boards, CAD files, photographs, the wiki, the blog, etc (please add any additional areas)
  • If an outside performer works on the project, their work will not automatically be subject to the Creative Commons, GPL or MIT licenses mentioned above. Such matters will be discussed with the outside performer first. For example, if a musician adds sound clips to the orbs for a performance, licensing will be discussed with the musician.
  • If yours is a commercial work, we urge you to contact us. If your project is interesting, we're quite likely to grant you a lenient license to our work. There may also be interest in collaboration.


Further Notes and Issues

In order to differentiate between different parts of the code with different licenses, it's important to add license information to each of your source files and to the README file at the top of the branch.

Why Maintain Software Licenses

I spoke with Tad last night about WHY we maintain software licenses in the first place and we brought up several notable issues.


  • Livelihood of the artist
"Hey, don't steal my ideas because this is how I make a living. You're cutting into my earnings."
  • Personal pride of the artist / artist perception
"This is my idea. If you don't talk to me about using it, I'll consider you a thief and a jerk." It's good for the personal and professional relationships of artists to agree what ideas can be borrowed from one another.
  • Consumer perception
When an artist uses another artist's work, the public may consider the new work either a knock-off or a successor to the original work. For example, if a successor's work is blessed by the original artist's work with a Forward in a book or some-such, the public may look much more favorably upon it.


  • Legal risk of the infectiousness of GPL
If an artist takes code from a GPL project and uses it on a proprietary project, the company must stop and excise the code or else be subject to GPL. Similar is true for many Creative Commons variants.

Discussion

I am quite happy with the current terms as stated above. As for the "the using a slightly different license", I assume that was the X11 license which I understand to be the true and proper name of the MIT license. As far as i can tell folks call it the MIT license because it's a better name. I cleaned up the text up in that area there a little. --Trebor 10:46, 19 June 2007 (MST)

Please put your comments on this licensing issue below this line. Of course, feel free to alter the terms above as well. Don't forget to sign your work with "--~~~~". Thanks, --Lee 11:36, 14 June 2007 (MST)

You can also add comments to existing sections by adding a colon to the beginning of a line like I've done here (click "edit" to see) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi euismod, magna aliquet feugiat bibendum, mi odio luctus ligula, sit amet commodo nisi felis non nunc. Nunc commodo, elit sagittis mollis lobortis. --Lee 12:14, 14 June 2007 (MST)
If you put 2 colons, it will push the paragraph over to the right even more, like this. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi euismod, magna aliquet feugiat bibendum, mi odio luctus ligula, sit amet commodo nisi felis non nunc. Nunc commodo, elit sagittis mollis lobortis, sapien odio venenatis purus, sed porta velit leo fringilla eros. Suspendisse imperdiet ipsum interdum metus rutrum adipiscing. --Lee 12:14, 14 June 2007 (MST)
3 colons....
And then back to one colon. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi euismod, magna aliquet feugiat bibendum, mi odio luctus ligula, sit amet commodo nisi felis non nunc. Nunc commodo, elit sagittis mollis lobortis, sapien odio venenatis purus, sed porta velit leo fringilla eros. Suspendisse imperdiet ipsum interdum metus rutrum adipiscing. --Lee 12:14, 14 June 2007 (MST)


Image Release

When releasing images, we often use the following text:

This image is released by SWARM under the Creative Commons Non-Commerical Share Alike. 3.0 license. It is understood that you may choose to use this image as a Fair Use example of the SWARM project. When attributing this image, please reference http://orbswarm.com and the SWARM Art Project.

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