The license is non-free

[bowlofeggs]

Greetings!

I see that you are using a custom license that includes the restriction "The Software may not be used in
any system whose intent is harm any person's privacy, body or mind." I am not a laywer, but this seems similar to the JSON license's clause that the software must be used for good and not evil. You can use a web search to find analysis on why that license is considered non-free.

Though the goal does seem good, one of the problems with the text is that it does not define what "harm" is (similar to how "evil" and "good" are not easy to define in the JSON license).

I recommend relicensing under an OSI approved license.

[oli-obk]

This is kinda on purpose. If someone worries about whether the term "intent to harm" applies to them, it does.

I don't really have an issue with going to a free license. If someone makes a relicense PR with checkboxes for all past, present and future contributors, I'll merge it without complaint.

[bowlofeggs]

Do you really mean to include future contributors as a criteria for relicensing?

[oli-obk]

lol, no, sorry. But the license change should include wording so that any contributions (past and future) are under e.g. Apache2 + MIT licenses.

[bowlofeggs]

Cool. For past contributors, we can try to see if we can contact them to ask if they are willing to switch to a free license. For future contributors, I recommend using the DCO - it's just a way for contributors to certify that their patch is FOSS and more explicitly, that they grant it to the project under the same license as the project.

[bowlofeggs]

Greetings contributors! I propose relicensing this project under an OSI approved license. Could each of you reply with a set of OSI licenses that you would agree with relicensing your past contributions under? If there are some common licenses that you can all agree to, then we can pick that one. @oli-obk suggested Apache 2.0 or MIT above, for example.

CC @oli-obk @nakeep @chrisxue815 @quadfault @Ryman

@oli-obk The early commits in the repo were from Oliver Schneider - is that you? That's the only name I saw that I didn't CC above.

[chrisxue815]

I don't mind. Any OSI license works for me.

[bowlofeggs]

I'll keep a record here for contributors we have heard from:

• @chrisxue815 - Any OSI license
• @oli-obk
• @nakeep
• @quadfault - Any [OSI license?]
• @Ryman
• Oliver Schneider

[quadfault]

Any is fine with me.

[oli-obk]

@oli-obk The early commits in the repo were from Oliver Schneider - is that you?

yes

[Ryman]

Any OSI license works for me

Same!

[bowlofeggs]

Hello @nakeep - are you OK with the proposed license changes?

[bowlofeggs]

I have written @nakeep an e-mail to see if they are OK with switching the license here.

For reference, they have written two commits:

https://github.com/oli-obk/rust-si/commits?author=nakeep

[oli-obk]

worst case we'll revert their commits and open an issue with the general idea of compile-time checking the correctness

[qryxip]

I've just contributed to this repository. I am OK with the license change.

[Endle]

Do we have any updates about this progress?

[oli-obk]

we could revert @nakeep's commits, their github accounts seems to be dead.

[Endle]

I executed such command

$ git shortlog --summary --numbered --email
    20  Oliver Schneider <[email protected]>
    19  Oliver Schneider <[email protected]>
     9  Oliver Schneider <[email protected]>
     8  Oliver Scherer <[email protected]>
     5  Kevin Butler <[email protected]>
     4  Ryo Yamashita <[email protected]>
     3  Breno Viana <[email protected]>
     2  Carl Scherer <[email protected]>
     2  MuhammadAnnaqeeb <[email protected]>
     2  Oli Scherer <[email protected]>
     2  Oliver Schneider <[email protected]>
     1  Chris Xue <[email protected]>
     1  Lorenz Gorse <[email protected]>
     1  Oliver Schneider <[email protected]>
     1  Oliver Schneider <[email protected]>
     1  Zhenbo Li <[email protected]>
     1  quadfault <[email protected]>

How can we find the two patches committe by nakeep in this list?

[oli-obk]

git log --author="MuhammadAnnaqeeb <[email protected]>" should work

[Endle]

Thanks @oli-obk
I'm trying to revert these two patches and checking if anything would be broken.

commit fe2b3b6d436bf02127d2ff37857083a3f98acf15
Author: MuhammadAnnaqeeb <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Nov 26 01:16:28 2016 +0200

    add failing examples, add a test for panic
    
    also switch line ending to LF in .gitattributes to avoid failed tests
    because of  line ending changing while cloning repo. Also avoid copying
    .lock file by listing it in .gitignore

commit fda477c20108470178266fcfaae2bde4cdb3ca75
Author: MuhammadAnnaqeeb <[email protected]>
Date:   Fri Nov 25 06:48:35 2016 +0200

    allow compilation time checks
    
    use format_args!() macro to allow compile time checks. Now code like:
    ```
    let a: i32;
    let b: &mut u8 = &mut 5;
    scan!("{}, {}{", a, *b);
    ```
    will not pass compilation, however code as
    ```
    let a: i32;
    let b: &mut u8 = &mut 5;
    scan!("{:o}, {:o}", a, *b);
    ```
     will pass compilation and fail at runtime

Besides, have we tried to connect him by email?

[oli-obk]

Besides, have we tried to connect him by email?

I haven't

[Endle]

I'm trying to revert nakeep's first commit by #35

For the other commit fda477c it seems that his change has been overwritten (partially) by otherchanges

$ git blame src/lib.rs | grep -i Muhammad
fda477c2 (MuhammadAnnaqeeb 2016-11-25 06:48:35 +0200 224)     ($text:expr, $($arg:expr),*) => {
fda477c2 (MuhammadAnnaqeeb 2016-11-25 06:48:35 +0200 227)         format_args!($text, $($arg),*);
fda477c2 (MuhammadAnnaqeeb 2016-11-25 06:48:35 +0200 228)     };

[oli-obk]

I guess just remove

rust-si/src/lib.rs

Line 171 in b0e8ce7

format_args!($pattern, $($arg),*);

and

rust-si/src/lib.rs

Line 209 in b0e8ce7

format_args!($pattern, $($arg),*);

[Endle]

Thanks @oli-obk
Are we good to go?

[oli-obk]

yes

[Endle]

Hi @oli-obk , do you plan to change the LICENSE file soon?
Besides, I assume a new release (0.1.9?) is needed, so the metadata on crates.io would be refreshed.
https://crates.io/crates/text_io

[oli-obk]

Done!

[MuhammadAnnaqeeb]

I am sorry for very late reply. Please go ahead and change the license. Sadly, years went without me seeing the message. My old Github handle was @nakeep.