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Creation of LICENSE file to add a license #473

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@s-a-m s-a-m commented Apr 26, 2023

By default, any creative work without an explicit license, including Github repositories like yours, have the most restrictive license of them all: exclusive "all rights reserved" copyright. I assume that since you have your (awesome) software in a Github repository, it is your intent for people to use it, fork it and improve it. Thus, I'd strongly advise to add an open source license to facilitate this -- otherwise, it would be illegal to use this code in any way. If you want to allow any use of it, I'd recommend a MIT License (which is the one I'm including in this pull-request). I am happy to help clarify doubts or uncertainties around all this, or help choose another license if you don't like these (there are other options in Github's https://choosealicense.com).

By default, any creative work without an explicit license, including Github repositories like yours, have the most restrictive license of them all: exclusive "all rights reserved" copyright. I assume that since you have your (awesome) software in a Github repository, it is your intent for people to use it, fork it and improve it. Thus, I'd strongly advise to add an open source license to facilitate this -- otherwise, it would be illegal to use this code in any way. If you want to allow any use of it, I'd recommend a MIT License (which is the one I'm including in this pull-request). I am happy to help clarify doubts or uncertainties around all this, or help choose another license if you don't like these (there are other options in Github's https://choosealicense.com).
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s-a-m commented Apr 26, 2023

Btw, congrats on your work, I'm a Patreon supporter :)

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zzorba commented Apr 26, 2023

Thank you for the support!

I'd be happy to introduce a license and make this some level of OSS, but I'm uncertain the correct license to use, which is why I haven't too date.

Ideally, I'm looking for a license that lets people fork and use the code in apps as they see fit, provided they do not use it to produce a direct clone of the app and submit it to the app stores. But my naive understanding of OSS is that I can't strictly prevent this?

Also because the repository contains some 'content' that is not authored by me directly (Campaign information, icons, etc), I wanted to make sure whatever license I picked had some accounting for that.

Do you know if there is a license that would suit these requirements?

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s-a-m commented Apr 27, 2023

Given your preferences, I would recommend the following:

  • The license AGPLv3 https://choosealicense.com/licenses/agpl-3.0/ is a very protective free/open source software license. Basically if someone wants to clone it and distribute it, they are legally obliged to release the code and all the changes to it, even if it's offered as a web service on a website (or of course as an app). Thus, if someone does fork/clone your project, you could integrate any changes they do to it, so yours will remain the most advanced version at all times. In practice, this removes any incentive to appropriate your work.
  • If someone were to clone it and distribute it without releasing their code, you could report them in the app store, or denounce them in a court of law. They would be infringing your license, so they are "pirating" your software. This would be the same as if they wanted to do it today, with the current "all rights reserved" copyright license. And as long as the code is on github, anyone could do this "pirating". That's why I strongly believe a good free/open source license protects your software appropriately while enabling fair uses of it.
  • With respect to the content that is not yours, I would suggest the following: in the Readme and/or the License file, you should specify something like this: "The icons, map and campaign stories is content that is property and copyright of Fantasy Flight Games. They are used here under fair use provisions, since this is a free app with no commercial nature. This app is intended to help the community to organize and facilitate the use of the original Arkham Horror LCG game. The app source code is released as free/open source with an AGPLv3 license, while the rest of the content remains copyrighted by Fantasy Flights Games."

Hope this helps

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