15
Which software license to use for personal projects? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by JTurtle@lemmygrad.ml to c/programming@lemmygrad.ml
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Copyright is a tool of suppression by the bourgeoisie etc etc but as long as we have to deal with this tomfoolery, what licenses do you use or recommend, and why? I'm also open to the idea of custom or silly licenses if you can justify that they won't cause more trouble than they're worth.

I've heard the tale of a Rust DS emulator whose github repo was deleted, but because either there was no license or the license was something dumb, no one was able (or brave enough) to revive it, so i feel like it's important to take this more seriously than i have been. For the few things i have made i just put "copyright is fake" or "this isnt my code, it is OUR code, comrade!" in LICENSE.txt.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] WhatWouldKarlDo@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 years ago

That's the whole point of the copyleft. It uses copyright against itself so that it remains free for all of time. Licensing under the GPL is exactly the same as saying “this isnt my code, it is OUR code, comrade!”. That's the whole point.

[-] JTurtle@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 years ago

i know of copyleft, but im not sure i like MIT(+other lenient licenses) or GPL. MIT makes my code free for the taking for any big corpos (not that im cool enough for that to happen, but hypothetically) and i'd like to inconvenience them at every opportunity. yet GPL would be a pain for normal smaller devs who just want to use or modify my stuff without license headaches.

but i'm probably overthinking it, aint nobody using my shitty ass code 🙃

[-] WhatWouldKarlDo@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago

You might want to use the LGPL then, which would allow your code to be linked dynamically without requiring the calling code to be GPL. That would allow your code to be used across most (but not all) platforms.

There's also the option of dual licensing. Qt is a large project that does this. You can use it for free under the GPL, but they are also willing to license it under a commercial license for users who can't/won't obey the GPL (embedded systems).

this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
15 points (100.0% liked)

Programming

307 readers
1 users here now

Welcome to the Lemmygrad programming community! This is a space where programmers of all levels can discuss programming, ask for help with problems, and share their personal programming projects with others.

Rules

  1. Respect all users, regardless of their level of knowledge in programming. We're here to learn and help each other improve.
  2. Keep posts relevant to programming and related topics.
  3. Respect people's personal preferences. If you disagree with someone's choice of programming language, method of formatting code, or anything else, don't attack the poster. Genuine criticism is fine, but personal attacks are not.
  4. In order to promote breaks from typing, all code snippets must be photos of code written on paper.
    Just kidding :), please use proper markdown code blocks.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Elara@lemmygrad.ml