Cataclysm-dda: CC BY-SA is NOT suitable for codes

[Screwland]

Dear all,

I found this game today, and looked source codes.

This project is licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0.

However, All of Creative Commons licenses(except. CC0 Public Domain Dedication) are not suitable for Software(i.e. codes).
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Can_I_apply_a_Creative_Commons_license_to_software.3F

This project's license text was inherited from original project, the Cataclysm https://github.com/Whales/Cataclysm

I think that this project should change the code's license to another famous FLOSS license such as GPL, MIT or BSD,
but it's difficult Since there are a lot of authors and contibuters for this project.

I am thinking an idea, Using a later version clause[4-b (ii)] and Creative Commons Compatible License clause[4-b (iv)],
because CC BY-SA 4.0 has one-way compatiblity with GNU GPLv3.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/creative-commons-by-sa-4-0-declared-one-way-compatible-with-gnu-gpl-version-3

CC BY-SA 3.0       ->               CC BY-SA 4.0      ->     GNU GPLv3
  [Change by using later-version clause]          [Change by using Compatible License clause]

Is someone interested in this problem?

[illusionofchaos]

There were some discussions about licensing on the forums and I can quote @kevingranade :

GPL is your best option for limiting the ability of people to take it proprietary.

NC would render the whole project NC [Non-commercial], which is unacceptable

There are also a lot of problems with GPL, such as uploading to Apple App Store and the requirement to license all derivative works under the same license.

CC BY-SA in this case seems appropriate because it ensures attribution while allowing creation of derivative works mixed with differently-licensed code.

[WizardOfOoo]

The application CC we are using has never been tested in court. It's a legal grey area and nobody really knows if software will work or not, but Kevin is right that this is the best license for us.

[kevingranade]

(Historical information) It's less that it's the best, and more that it's
the one that whales picked when we originally forked the project (
previously it was under an informal "feel free to modify" license). At that
point there were about 80 contributors and I'm confident we did a good job
of getting sign-off from them to use the license.

At this point there have been over 400 contributors to the codebase under
the current license, many of which are not reachable, including the
original developer whales, it simply does not seem feasible to perform a
relicensing campaign now.

If someone does want to try, I'd be happy to reliscense my contributions
under GPL v3 or later, and several others if there were some consensus
about it.

[mugling]

and several others if there were some consensus about it.

Has anyone tried running git-blame * | cut -d: -f1 | sort |uniq -c or something to that effect? Not perfect but may be indicative.

[BrettDong]

Running git ls-tree -r -z --name-only HEAD -- *.cpp *.h | xargs -0 -n1 git blame --line-porcelain HEAD | grep "^author " | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr works for me, and got the following result:

45864 author Coolthulhu
27724 author Kevin Granade
19696 author Thomas Kirsten
15861 author BevapDin
12549 author Mugling
11486 author mugling
11351 author Tommy
9940 author codemime
8835 author illi-kun
8351 author Christian Buskirk
8053 author fnord
6411 author OzoneH3
5680 author acidia
5184 author Whales
3232 author Brandon Kentel
3205 author sethsimon
2605 author GalenEvil
2368 author Clarence Risher
2102 author huxtus
2033 author KA101
1651 author DLaboratory
1571 author cib
1521 author DanmakuDan
1351 author Valuial
1350 author Vlasov Vitaly
1226 author utunnels
1174 author DavidKeaton
1165 author Ian Strachan
1113 author trinsic
1058 author Steven Wu
 966 author Lucian Poston
 922 author Oliver Jowett
 906 author Brandon Bergren
 884 author Quietust
 833 author JornVernee
 772 author WillyGalleta
 755 author Robert Sørlie
 672 author Dmitry Serov
 617 author Piotr S. Staszewski
 574 author Octav Sandulescu
 496 author Shoes01
 478 author Chris Vickio
 476 author Rémy Roy
 473 author Anuradha Dissanayake
 464 author hitbutton
 442 author ethankaminski
 427 author Robik81
 426 author GlyphGryph
 412 author Moises Sanchez
 401 author Soyweiser
 396 author PropaneSoup
 394 author Clarence "sparr" Risher
 375 author Wuzzy
 339 author BeigeSand
 323 author Ethan "Soron" Kaminski
 303 author malhawee
 302 author Erik Abair
 291 author patternoia
 291 author Jeremy Osborne
 290 author vache
 279 author OvenBaker
 278 author Angela Graves
 276 author Christian Bielert
 263 author Alexander White
 261 author StrangerState
 253 author origamiwolf
 243 author hbnix
 242 author Rivet-the-Zombie
 241 author Daniel Beck
 238 author C0DEHERO
 237 author Matt Ammann
 225 author Pierre-David Bélanger
 224 author Frost-wood
 223 author Alexander Schnaidt
 221 author EpicOrange
 213 author ClockworkZombie
 212 author Williham Totland
 212 author Peter Lacey-Bordeaux
 201 author Kodi Arfer
 200 author Anton Burmistrov
 199 author Brett Dong
 190 author jaked122
 190 author TheDarklingWolf
 182 author HuXTUS
 175 author jcd000
 163 author Herbert Jones
 159 author Vidar Engh Skaugen
 159 author Mshock777
 157 author Maykeye
 156 author Zach Morgan
 155 author Gabriel-SE
 153 author whales
 150 author Heruedhel
 148 author 9600bauds
 146 author benjamg
 139 author John-Candlebury
 137 author gmcnew
 137 author TranquilMarmot
 135 author SeanMirrsen
 125 author hesu
 123 author Tomas Volka
 121 author Fergus Dall
 119 author Vollch
 116 author desrik
 114 author Soy
 112 author Brian Lefler
 109 author chaosvolt
 105 author [email protected]
 102 author [email protected]
 101 author Rick Luddy
 101 author NaturesWitness
  99 author Wouter van Kesteren
  97 author BrianLefler
  96 author cSep
  95 author Lorith
  94 author Charlie Nolan (FunnyMan3595)
  93 author Greg McNew
  93 author Denis Volk
  92 author Tivec
  91 author KrazyTheFox
  90 author D Anzorge
  88 author MacrosBlackD
  88 author Eric Nguyen
  84 author FunnyMan3595 (Charlie Nolan)
  84 author Benjamin Holder
  83 author macrosblackd
  82 author Chase
  80 author freezerbunny
  76 author TireExaminer
  75 author belenos-
  73 author Tyler Merta
  73 author Eric
  72 author Jeremy Apthorp
  69 author Matias Oksa
  69 author Lukasz Dobrogowski
  68 author Lap
  68 author Alex Parent
  67 author c0
  67 author Chaosvolt
  67 author Axujen
  65 author tasetase
  65 author jokermatt999
  61 author skYYman
  58 author Lain-
  57 author Stéphane Travostino
  57 author Izicata
  57 author Chris Hunt
  55 author mafagafogigante
  54 author Serhiy Zahoriya
  51 author Asmageddon
  50 author alexander white
  48 author Tom Richardson
  46 author Graywolfe813
  45 author mightyagrippa
  45 author joshuagiles
  45 author Oddbjørn Olsen
  42 author Anrock
  40 author mafagafo
  39 author Night-Pryanik
  39 author Brad Busse
  38 author Philipp Grosenick
  37 author maseck
  37 author Firestorm01X2
  37 author Cyrano7
  36 author veryinky
  36 author Voker57
  35 author Zero
  35 author Ben Gray
  34 author Matthew Pfeiffer
  33 author root
  29 author hurcan solter
  29 author Nicholas De Nova
  29 author DeadLeaves
  29 author Darkyhard
  27 author Steven Noonan
  25 author user
  24 author arcke
  23 author Rabbit
  22 author pisskop
  22 author Ozone
  22 author BurnZeZ
  21 author Livingstone
  20 author Samir Benmendil
  20 author Dustin Lacewell
  19 author falconne
  19 author Reaper
  18 author tvm
  18 author delebota
  18 author DZiral
  18 author Alex Casey
  17 author nrfowler
  17 author maltouzes
  16 author ubuntu
  16 author Vladimir Kovalenko
  16 author Snaaty
  16 author Isk1n
  16 author Daniel
  16 author Caden Depatie
  15 author orzogc
  15 author Wishbringer
  15 author Savidiy
  15 author Nick Taylor
  14 author uzername
  14 author fuchs87
  13 author abaire
  13 author Leonid Vasilev
  13 author Goron
  13 author Eric Ng(ZwodahS)
  13 author D Laboratory
  13 author Aapo Rantalainen
  12 author jc6036
  12 author Skyyrunner
  12 author Owen Diamond
  12 author Malkeus
  12 author Dylan Greer
  12 author D Lue Choy
  11 author maxmurder
  11 author Pierre-David Bélanger
  11 author Julian Snitow
  11 author Crispy6
  10 author niglow
  10 author Nick Greazaro
  10 author Karl Parakenings
  10 author JedrekD
   9 author thunderwarrior
   9 author daftfad
   9 author carnie
   9 author aspolito
   9 author PiCroft
   9 author John Candlebury
   9 author Fitz Elliott
   9 author Chezzo
   8 author ThinkInvisible
   8 author Griffinhart
   8 author DangerNoodle
   7 author unknown
   7 author oldlaptop
   7 author cryptonaut
   7 author Xantrim
   7 author Trapper John
   7 author Spencer Michaels
   7 author Siwen Yu
   7 author GiM
   7 author David Holmes
   7 author ChunkOfMeat
   6 author feo111
   6 author Raphael Sofaer
   6 author JoeKlesczewski
   6 author Joakim Kuxe Thorén
   6 author Dimensiomancer
   6 author Ben Fox-Moore
   6 author Alex Unigovsky
   5 author somerandomlogin
   5 author brezerk
   5 author alex-gh
   5 author ValidAQ
   5 author Stevensonz
   5 author NANOsoldierEnke
   5 author Hourousha
   5 author Cliffs Dover
   5 author Angular-Angel
   5 author Alice Morgan
   5 author Alexander Voikov
   4 author werty1124
   4 author Yclept Nemo
   4 author Waladil
   4 author Sven-Hendrik Haase
   4 author Nymall
   4 author Lucas A. Rosevear
   4 author Levi Kendall
   4 author Josh Richey
   4 author Greg Beck
   4 author Dave Apgar
   4 author Costin Olteanu
   4 author Adam Long
   4 author 790
   3 author beefoni
   3 author VampyreLord
   3 author Tyler Reisinger
   3 author Ted Wright
   3 author Sergio Duran
   3 author Noodle
   3 author Nasuga
   3 author Madnus
   3 author Justin Drury
   3 author Eric Seto
   3 author Ekarus Ryndren
   3 author Daniel Rempel
   3 author BorkBorkGoesTheCode
   3 author Barhandar
   3 author Andrey Egoshin
   2 author v-tl
   2 author tivec
   2 author TheFlame52
   2 author The Stick
   2 author Skyrunner
   2 author ProfoundDarkness
   2 author Matthew Heine
   2 author Mathieu Quinette
   2 author JasonNAwesome
   2 author HiggsF
   2 author Henrik Bergvin
   2 author FryCarson
   2 author FlorinTeal
   2 author Desrik
   1 author zwparchman
   1 author pipehat
   1 author keyspace
   1 author jwo7777777
   1 author jbfink
   1 author indigochill
   1 author graszka22
   1 author dlaboratory
   1 author bdragon28
   1 author antonshevyrin
   1 author aierce
   1 author admin
   1 author Zachary
   1 author TheGrifter
   1 author StraySilverFox
   1 author Reclusive-reptile
   1 author Nullsrc
   1 author Nick Owens
   1 author Nandorianen
   1 author Mitsuhiro Nakamura
   1 author KittyTristy
   1 author Karol Sobo
   1 author Jazz
   1 author Jason Gilbert
   1 author Heema
   1 author Christian Henz
   1 author Catacstone
   1 author Brandon Kime
   1 author Barry Peddycord III
   1 author Alpha16
   1 author Alexander Tesfamichael
   1 author Alex

(after ten minutes of CPU boiling)

[BrettDong]

Note: the list above is generated within src/ subfolder and concerns only with C/C++ source file located in src/ subfolder.

[kevingranade]

I MASSIVELY misunderstood the proposal presented in this PR. Now that I understand it, I absolutely want to do it.

Specifically, adjust https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/LICENSE.txt to specify that all files under src/ and tests/ (other than Catch2) are hereby considered licensed under GPLv3 as per the CC-BY-SA license compatibility clause, and designate the creative commons foundation as the proxy for future licence compatibility issues as outlined at https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility:_GPLv3#Considerations_for_adapters_applying_the_GPLv3

[mlangsdorf]

I don't particularly like GPLv3, but I prefer a source license to a non-source license, so if this is the pass that gets us to a source license, let's do this.