[Slackbuilds-users] Script licensing

[Mikko Varri]

On Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 12:31:39PM +0200, Audrius Kažukauskas wrote:
> 
> According to notes in SBo SlackBuild templates, "Public Domain" scripts
> are no longer allowed:
> 
>   A license is required, and we strongly suggest you use the above
>   BSD/MIT style license.  We DO NOT accept "Public Domain" scripts.
>   Public domain is not valid in some countries, and no license is
>   worse than a "bad" license in those countries.
> 
> This is easily applicable for new SlackBuilds, but what about the ones
> that were submitted to SBo in the past as "Public Domain" and need an
> update now?
> 

I went through this last year for the scripts that I maintain (close
to a hundred scripts).

If the script is public domain, as a maintainer you can do whatever
you want with it.  You do not have to mention the previous
maintainers. But...

I did contact all the previous maintainers (those mentioned in the
script and those who had touched the script according to git log) and
asked whether they want to be mentioned according to the BSD/MIT
style.  Most of them couldn't care less, so I dropped their names.
However, some of them appreciated the gesture and wanted to keep their
names in the scripts, so those stayed.

Then I created a git branch and changed the license of all the
scripts.  I didn't do any other updates in that branch.  Finally, one
of the admins pulled that branch and it was done.

-vmj