Codeberg/Community
54
325
Fork
You've already forked Community
12

Clarification on non FLOSS licenses. FAQ improvements. #1920

Closed
opened 2025年05月07日 16:33:38 +02:00 by Ghost · 1 comment

Comment

Hello,

Could you please update the FAQ which would cover the uncertainty about the licenses like Common Clause i.e allowed or not, why and a clear reasoning without references to FSF or OSI.

I don't want to start a holywar or whatever... I was reading a FAQ and Terms of Services in order to understand what is going on and I am a bit confused. I am running my own coderepo for organization (hosting it in Germany) where I keep a Rust crates because I am not comfortable with Github/lab. I am tired managing the server and I am looking for managed alternative in EU and I will be ok to rather donate the money to i.e Codeberg for hosting. I am using mostly EUPL-1.2 and BSD licenses which is ok here but for large projects I use Common Clause License 1.0 with EUPL or MPL which seems is not ok. I searched over the Codeberg to find out, "for how much Common Clause is a really nightmare" and did not found neither the info, nor statements except that this is not Free in terms of Freedom rather than gratis in terms of FSF.

In my humble opinion, which relies on formal logic not logic of idealists from FSF or OSI, the Common Clause does not limit any freedoms to share, modify or distribute as long as it stays free (in terms of gratis) for everyone. It disallows to sell or offer a service based on software which was initially produced as never to be sold. The right to sell is not a freedom and can not be granted because code is non-material value and no one can grant it for you (otherwise it is communism). Also because it follows not the idea of benefiting for all but benefiting for a private person or organization where the code (non-material value) is converted into profit by selling which is a financial operation. In other words, if you grow an apple tree in your garden and I will come, grab the apples and leave a notice that, well, my friend, this is your territory and you spent water, electricity, your precious time but I want to fly far to space on a large rocket which looks like genital and to achieve this I will sell your apples.
Anyway, there are wars and criminals which leads to sanctions which you must follow even if you are individual which breaks the license terms in terms of distribution. If you won't probably your software will be used to kill civilians and at least morally, you will be guilty. In terms of law too.

I do not support neither OSI nor FSF and never donated to them (I donated to authors/foundations directly like FreeBSD...). In my opinion those organizations are no longer useful as both were initially and both are quite questionable, existing only for their own profit, limiting my freedoms (well I can not use Codeberg which is located in EU, but Codeberg follows the code of organizations which outside the EU). But this is my opinion that is why I am not here. But if you could update the FAQ which would cover the question about the licenses like Common Clause which are free in both cases, but protects the author from being robbed. If this is a Free software then it should be FREE in terms of Gratis and if this is Freedom software this must be called Freedom software, not Free software. If sources are published then this is OPEN software for public or closed from public. This useless organizations made everything to distort understanding to one's advantage.

Thank you.

p/s The answer because FSF or OSI thinks so, this is bad position and not an explanation (it explains something else). Tomorrow they will decide that EUPL is not Free or whatever like FSF decided that EUPL is not compatible with his GPL.

p/ss I am not going to argue with anyone on importance of FSF or OSI. Both are organizations located in USA, but I am in EU. And somehow I am dealing without them.

### Comment Hello, Could you please update the FAQ which would cover the uncertainty about the licenses like Common Clause i.e allowed or not, why and a clear reasoning without references to FSF or OSI. > I don't want to start a `holywar` or whatever... I was reading a FAQ and Terms of Services in order to understand what is going on and I am a bit confused. I am running my own coderepo for organization (hosting it in Germany) where I keep a Rust crates because I am not comfortable with Github/lab. I am tired managing the server and I am looking for managed alternative in EU and I will be ok to rather donate the money to i.e Codeberg for hosting. I am using mostly EUPL-1.2 and BSD licenses which is ok here but for large projects I use Common Clause License 1.0 with EUPL or MPL which seems is not ok. I searched over the Codeberg to find out, "for how much Common Clause is a really nightmare" and did not found neither the info, nor statements except that this is not Free in terms of Freedom rather than gratis in terms of FSF. > > In **my humble opinion**, which relies on formal logic not logic of idealists from FSF or OSI, the Common Clause does not limit any freedoms to share, modify or distribute as long as it stays free (in terms of gratis) for everyone. It disallows to sell or offer a service based on software which was initially produced as **never to be sold**. The **right to sell** is not a freedom and can not be granted because code is **non-material value** and no one can grant it for you (otherwise it is communism). Also because it follows not the idea of benefiting for all but benefiting for a private person or organization where the code (non-material value) is converted into profit by selling which is a financial operation. In other words, if you grow an apple tree in your garden and I will come, grab the apples and leave a notice that, well, my friend, this is your territory and you spent water, electricity, your precious time but I want to fly far to space on a large rocket which looks like genital and to achieve this I will sell your apples. > Anyway, there are wars and criminals which leads to **sanctions** which you **must** follow even **if you are individual** which **breaks the license terms** in terms of distribution. If you won't probably your software will be used to kill civilians and at least morally, you will be guilty. In terms of law too. > > I do not support neither OSI nor FSF and never donated to them (I donated to authors/foundations directly like FreeBSD...). In my opinion those organizations are no longer useful as both were initially and both are quite questionable, existing only for their own profit, limiting my freedoms (well I can not use Codeberg which is located in EU, but Codeberg follows the code of organizations which outside the EU). But this is my opinion that is why I am not here. But if you **could update the FAQ which would cover the question about the licenses like Common Clause which are free in both cases, but protects the author from being robbed.** If this is a Free software then it should be FREE in terms of Gratis and if this is Freedom software this must be called Freedom software, not Free software. If sources are published then this is OPEN software for public or closed from public. This useless organizations made everything to distort understanding to one's advantage. > > Thank you. > > p/s The answer because FSF or OSI thinks so, this is bad position and not an explanation (it explains something else). Tomorrow they will decide that EUPL is not Free or whatever like FSF decided that EUPL is not compatible with his GPL. > > p/ss I am not going to argue with anyone on importance of FSF or OSI. Both are organizations located in USA, but I am in EU. And somehow I am dealing without them.
Ghost changed title from (削除) Clarification on non FLOSS licenses and law. FAQ improvements. (削除ここまで) to Clarification on non FLOSS licenses. FAQ improvements. 2025年05月07日 16:35:14 +02:00

This is covered by Codeberg/Community#1654 and Codeberg-e.V./Discussion#128 (only available to Codeberg e.V. members).

This is covered by Codeberg/Community#1654 and https://codeberg.org/Codeberg-e.V./Discussion/issues/128 (only available to Codeberg e.V. members).
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag specified
main
No results found.
Labels
Clear labels
accessibility

Reduces accessibility and is thus a "bug" for certain user groups on Codeberg.
bug

Something is not working the way it should. Does not concern outages.
bug
infrastructure

Errors evidently caused by infrastructure malfunctions or outages
Codeberg

This issue involves Codeberg's downstream modifications and settings and/or Codeberg's structures.
contributions welcome

Please join the discussion and consider contributing a PR!
docs

No bug, but an improvement to the docs or UI description will help
duplicate

This issue or pull request already exists
enhancement

New feature
infrastructure

Involves changes to the server setups, use `bug/infrastructure` for infrastructure-related user errors.
legal

An issue directly involving legal compliance
licence / ToS

involving questions about the ToS, especially licencing compliance
please chill
we are volunteers

Please consider editing your posts and remember that there is a human on the other side. We get that you are frustrated, but it's harder for us to help you this way.
public relations

Things related to Codeberg's external communication
question

More information is needed
question
user support

This issue contains a clearly stated problem. However, it is not clear whether we have to fix anything on Codeberg's end, but we're helping them fix it and/or find the cause.
s/Forgejo

Related to Forgejo. Please also check Forgejo's issue tracker.
s/Forgejo/migration

Migration related issues in Forgejo
s/Pages

Issues related to the Codeberg Pages feature
s/Weblate

Issue is related to the Weblate instance at https://translate.codeberg.org
s/Woodpecker

Woodpecker CI related issue
security

involves improvements to the sites security
service

Add a new service to the Codeberg ecosystem (instead of implementing into Gitea)
upstream

An open issue or pull request to an upstream repository to fix this issue (partially or completely) exists (i.e. Gitea, Forgejo, etc.)
wontfix

Codeberg's current set of contributors are not planning to spend time on delegating this issue.
Milestone
Clear milestone
No items
No milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No items
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
No assignees
2 participants
Notifications
Due date
The due date is invalid or out of range. Please use the format "yyyy-mm-dd".

No due date set.

Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference
Codeberg/Community#1920
Reference in a new issue
Codeberg/Community
No description provided.
Delete branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?