Usethis: Re-licensing usethis (1/2)

[hadley]

We are systematically re-licensing tidyverse and r-lib packages to use the MIT license, to make our package licenses as clear and permissive as possible. To do so, we need the approval of all copyright holders, which I have found by reviewing contributions from all all non-RStudio contributors. @davidchall, @dchiu911, @dpprdan, @EmilHvitfeldt, @fmichonneau, @friep, @gadenbuie, @GegznaV, @Geoff99, @haozhu233, @hmalmedal, @ijlyttle, @jayhesselberth, @jdblischak, @jmgirard, @jonthegeek, @jules32, @karaesmen, @khailper, @kiernann, @koshke, @lbusett, @llrs, @lorenzwalthert, @maelle, @malcolmbarrett, @Maschette, @maurolepore, @MichaelChirico, @mitchelloharawild, @muschellij2, @ncarchedi, @njtierney, @noamross, @overmar, @pachamaltese, @pat-s, @riccardoporreca, @rmflight, @rorynolan, @rundel, @ryapric, @salim-b, @smwindecker, @statwonk, @strboul, @stufield, @uribo, @VincentGuyader, @yoni, would you permit us to re-license usethis with the MIT license? If so, please comment "I agree" below.

• [x] [@davidchall](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=davidchall)
• [x] [@dchiu911](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=dchiu911)
• [x] [@dpprdan](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=dpprdan)
• [x] [@EmilHvitfeldt](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=EmilHvitfeldt)
• [x] [@fmichonneau](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=fmichonneau)
• [x] [@friep](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=friep)
• [x] [@gadenbuie](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=gadenbuie)
• [x] [@GegznaV](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=GegznaV)
• [x] [@Geoff99](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=Geoff99)
• [x] [@haozhu233](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=haozhu233)
• [x] [@hmalmedal](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=hmalmedal)
• [x] [@ijlyttle](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=ijlyttle)
• [x] [@jayhesselberth](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=jayhesselberth)
• [x] [@jdblischak](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=jdblischak)
• [x] [@jmgirard](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=jmgirard)
• [x] [@jonthegeek](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=jonthegeek)
• [x] [@jules32](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=jules32)
• [x] [@karaesmen](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=karaesmen)
• [x] [@khailper](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=khailper)
• [x] [@kiernann](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=kiernann)
• [x] [@koshke](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=koshke)
• [ ] [@lbusett](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=lbusett)
• [x] [@llrs](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=llrs)
• [x] [@lorenzwalthert](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=lorenzwalthert)
• [x] [@maelle](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=maelle)
• [x] [@malcolmbarrett](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=malcolmbarrett)
• [x] [@Maschette](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=Maschette)
• [x] [@maurolepore](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=maurolepore)
• [x] [@MichaelChirico](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=MichaelChirico)
• [x] [@mitchelloharawild](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=mitchelloharawild)
• [x] [@muschellij2](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=muschellij2)
• [x] [@ncarchedi](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=ncarchedi)
• [x] [@njtierney](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=njtierney)
• [x] [@noamross](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=noamross)
• [x] [@overmar](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=overmar)
• [x] [@pachamaltese](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=pachamaltese)
• [x] [@pat-s](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=pat-s)
• [x] [@riccardoporreca](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=riccardoporreca)
• [x] [@rmflight](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=rmflight)
• [x] [@rorynolan](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=rorynolan)
• [x] [@rundel](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=rundel)
• [x] [@ryapric](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=ryapric)
• [x] [@salim-b](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=salim-b)
• [x] [@smwindecker](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=smwindecker)
• [x] [@statwonk](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=statwonk)
• [x] [@strboul](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=strboul)
• [x] [@stufield](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=stufield)
• [x] [@uribo](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=uribo)
• [x] [@VincentGuyader](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=VincentGuyader)
• [x] [@yoni](https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/commits?author=yoni)

[haozhu233]

I agree

[lorenzwalthert]

I agree.

[fmichonneau]

I agree

[rundel]

I agree

[hmalmedal]

I agree

[malcolmbarrett]

I agree

[MichaelChirico]

I agree

On Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 12:38 PM Malcolm Barrett [e-mail]
wrote:

I agree

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[maurolepore]

I agree

[EmilHvitfeldt]

I agree

[kiernann]

I agree

[jonthegeek]

I agree.

[jules32]

I agree

On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 9:45 AM Kiernan Nicholls [e-mail]
wrote:

I agree

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--

Julia Stewart Lowndes, PhD
Senior Fellow and Openscapes Director
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS
https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/)
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Openscapes https://openscapes.org • Ocean Health Index
http://ohi-science.org/ • Mozilla Fellow
website http://jules32.github.io/ • github https://github.com/jules32 •
twitter https://twitter.com/juliesquid

[gadenbuie]

I agree

[salim-b]

to use the MIT license, to make our package licenses as clear and permissive as possible

The only additional freedom a so called "permissive" license provides compared to a copyleft license like GPL is the freedom to _not_ cooperate, i.e. to act in your _own_ interest instead of a common interest. I would therefore consider it as a typical "neoliberal" freedom, i.e. one whose use always puts someone else in a worse position and can therefore never be pareto-efficient.

---

But anyway, I'm in no position to decide about the licensing of this package since my contributions are marginal. Therefore I agree.

[pachadotdev]

I agree with repairs. I prefer to have a restriction such as "share your contributions and improvements with the community".

[rmflight]

I agree.

[salim-b]

I prefer to have a restriction such as "share your contributions and improvements with the community".

It's called copyleft, something a "permissive" license like MIT explicitly wants to avoid.

[khailper]

I agree.

On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 12:08 PM Salim B [e-mail] wrote:

I prefer to have a restriction such as "share your contributions and
improvements with the community".

It's called copyleft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft, something
a "permissive" license like MIT explicitly wants to avoid.

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[riccardoporreca]

I agree

[pat-s]

I agree

[davidchall]

I agree

[muschellij2]

I agree

On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 1:42 PM David C Hall [e-mail]
wrote:

I agree

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>

Best,
John

[ncarchedi]

I agree

[jayhesselberth]

I agree

[dchiu911]

I agree

[VincentGuyader]

I agree

Le ven. 16 oct. 2020 à 20:13, Derek Chiu [e-mail] a
écrit :

I agree

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[stufield]

I agree

[jdblischak]

I agree

[jmgirard]

I agree

[Geoff99]

I agree

[Maschette]

I agree

[uribo]

I agree

[ijlyttle]

I agree

[yoni]

I agree

On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 7:57 PM Ian Lyttle [e-mail] wrote:

I agree

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[mitchelloharawild]

I agree

[njtierney]

I agree

[maelle]

I agree

[llrs]

I agree

[GegznaV]

I agree.
Very good initiative to use MIT.

[friep]

I agree

[rorynolan]

I agree

[strboul]

I agree

[ryapric]

I agree.

On Sat, Oct 17, 2020, 10:43 Metin Yazici [e-mail] wrote:

I agree

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[smwindecker]

I agree.

[dpprdan]

We are systematically re-licensing tidyverse and r-lib packages to use the MIT license, to make our package licenses as clear and permissive as possible.

@hadley Could you elaborate on why you want to make this change, please? In particular, what exactly prompted you to choose GPL in the first place and what makes you want to change to MIT now? I am more interested in the "systematically" than in the particular usethis case (which, I assume, is GPL due to devtools and the base R code used therein). This is a substantial change and I suppose the community would be interested in your rationale (well, at least I am).

Anyway, I agree with this change here, because I would not have not contributed at the time, had usethis already been MIT-licensed then.

[hadley]

@dpprdan you can see some discussion at https://github.com/tidyverse/ggplot2/issues/4236

[karaesmen]

I agree.

[batpigandme]

Hi @koshke, @lbusett, @noamross, @overmar, and @statwonk,
We'd love to get your agreement please, if you could take a look when you have a chance. :slightly_smiling_face:
Thanks!

[noamross]

I agree

[statwonk]

I agree.

[jennybc]

@Hadley @batpigandme The 3 remaining appear to be essentially inactive on GitHub, so I believe this issue has served its purpose.

[overmar]

I agree

On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 7:03 PM Jennifer (Jenny) Bryan <
[email protected]> wrote:

@hadley https://github.com/hadley @batpigandme
https://github.com/batpigandme The 3 remaining appear to be essentially
inactive on GitHub, so I believe this issue has served its purpose.

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[jennybc]

I stand corrected! Thanks @overmar.

[hadley]

We have made a good-faith attempt to get consent from all contributor to the package under the previous license. This has included reviewing contributions to the package for non-trivial changes, seeking agreement to re-license with GitHub issues, sending a reminding after two weeks, and reaching out by e-mail (where possible).

Unfortunately, we have not received a response from @lbusett. We have carefully reviewed their contributions. Given that the contributions are relatively small, and no one has objected to re-licensing across all tidyverse and r-lib repos, we are going to move ahead with the re-licensing. Of course, if we later discover that contributors are not happy with the re-licensing, we'll re-implement their changes.

[llrs]

If you needed our consent to change the license don't we also hold the copyright?
I propose to change on LICENSE

-COPYRIGHT HOLDER: usethis authors
+COPYRIGHT HOLDER: usethis contributors

[hadley]

@llrs yes, we'd consider you to be an author of usethis.

[llrs]

Many thanks @hadley glad to contribute to the package :partying_face: but that is not reflected on the Description of the package. We are not listed there as authors or contributors. I'm fine with not appearing on the Description, just hope there is a balance between this issue, where we are authors and you need our approval for re-licensing, and the usual practice :sweat_smile: .

[salim-b]

(...) this issue, where we are authors and you need our approval for re-licensing, and the usual practice.

I guess legal prudence and social status are not the same thing. 😜

[hadley]

@llrs our policy is to only use Authors@R for significant and sustained contributions to the package, and acknowledge other contributions in blog posts. This allows us to clearly recognise those folks who have put in a lot of effort over a long period, while still thanking everyone who's made the package better, no matter how small their contribution is. If you want to discuss this policy, I'd suggest opening a new issue, so all 50+ folks on this issue aren't notified every time you comment.

[jennybc]

I have learned that @lbusett recently passed away, which explains the lack of response.

https://docs.ropensci.org/MODIStsp/articles/lorenzo.html