Project license change from MIT -> GPLv3 has issues #1718
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Here are the list of current contributors. This is a crude list I obtained using git blame. Totals to 107 (some duplicate cause multiple emails, removing those we get an even 100).
Please revert course ASAP. As stated in the Discord, this has opened up VRCX into a heap of legal trouble. Any of these contributors are now in their right to do a DMCA take-down and essentially cause a lot more issues.
I've redacted the emails to prevent scraping.
5f32797a <EMAIL_REDACTED>
abbey <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Antonin Léonard <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Aries <EMAIL_REDACTED>
arisumilkland <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Assault1892 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Asty <EMAIL_REDACTED>
avtrDB <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Bartłomiej Mazur <EMAIL_REDACTED>
BenjaminZehowlt <EMAIL_REDACTED>
BlueOvi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
BoatFloater <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Celso Junior <EMAIL_REDACTED>
ColorlessColor <EMAIL_REDACTED>
CunYu <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Donad_VR <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Dor <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Drelaky <EMAIL_REDACTED>
EbonCorvin <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Eeacks <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Elian <EMAIL_REDACTED>
elianel <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Ethan Cordray <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Float3 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
flower_elf <EMAIL_REDACTED>
galister <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Gizmo <EMAIL_REDACTED>
GotoFinal <EMAIL_REDACTED>
g├│ngo <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Hactazia <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Hactazia <EMAIL_REDACTED>
HelloHidnf <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Hyblocker <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Icey-Glitch <EMAIL_REDACTED>
iko <EMAIL_REDACTED>
inex <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Jay <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Jo Yoshikoshi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Kamiya <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Kamiya <EMAIL_REDACTED>
kamiya10 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Katie Holly <EMAIL_REDACTED>
KazaWai <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Kazuki Y. <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Kisaragi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Kito Yuta <EMAIL_REDACTED>
konsti219 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
kubectl <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Kyler Li <EMAIL_REDACTED>
laomo <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Lily <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Luc ΓÖÑ <EMAIL_REDACTED>
luna <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Lusiiky <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Map1en <EMAIL_REDACTED>
MenacingExiler <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Misaka_L <EMAIL_REDACTED>
monolithic827 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Myrkur <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Natsumi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Natsumi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Natsumi-sama <EMAIL_REDACTED>
neco222 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Nekromateion <EMAIL_REDACTED>
osiris-plus <EMAIL_REDACTED>
pa <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Patroll <EMAIL_REDACTED>
poprox24 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
pypy <EMAIL_REDACTED>
pypy <EMAIL_REDACTED>
pypy <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Regalia <EMAIL_REDACTED>
RingLo_ <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Roka <EMAIL_REDACTED>
rs189 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Ryo Namiki <EMAIL_REDACTED>
ScrapW <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Sergey004 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
ShanaNyaa <EMAIL_REDACTED>
sofoxe1 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
SpookySkeletons <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Stabrinai <EMAIL_REDACTED>
SymphonyVR <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Tamara <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Teacup <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Teacup <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Thomas <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Tomachi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Tony Lewis Hiroaki URAHAMA <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Tupper <EMAIL_REDACTED>
untuned <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Usman Shafiq <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Vivi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Willem K├╢nig <EMAIL_REDACTED>
WLK <EMAIL_REDACTED>
XoFKon <EMAIL_REDACTED>
y.takahashi <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Yingxue <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Yuki <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Yuki <EMAIL_REDACTED>
Yuu198 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
プリン <EMAIL_REDACTED>
πéüπéï <EMAIL_REDACTED>
πüéπüòπéïπü¿ <EMAIL_REDACTED>
優希 (Yuki) <EMAIL_REDACTED>
川澄 雪 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
玺朽 <EMAIL_REDACTED>
@Map1en To clarify my stance, and the stance of everyone I've talked to regarding this.
You may not see it this way, but changing licensing is a big change. This is nothing against you as a person, and many of us appreciate the work you've done; that's not going on deaf ears. VRCX would not be what it is today without you.
No one is opposed to moving to GLPv3. I understand the intention to move your code, and future development to it, while leaving the rest in MIT. We just need to do it legally correct.
The reason why people got upset about it is that the way it was done assumed all code was under GPLv3. Legally, this gives contributors the opportunity to do a DMCA notice against the repo. This is why people got concerned. No one wants to deal with the possibility of this project going down because of that. Again, people were not opposed to moving to GPLv3, so let's just do it correctly.
I will not say it is problematic because it is not1 my business, but I would be happy if I could hear what's behind the license change.
Footnotes
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My single contribution is https://github.com/vrcx-team/VRCX/commit/75416ab578350f082263839a213f90ed1e4fadff that refactors comments into JSDocs. ↩
By the way, is VRCPersona related to the license change?
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License was changed on the repository as of these commits: 71e5897...c6bb34e
This is just completely wrong for a multitude of reasons, as it seems at first glance that all code in the repo was placed under GPLv3. Since the code contains contributions from multiple users, not all of whom gave approval, along with the fact that there was no Contributor License Agreement that allowed for this to happen, this change cannot happen.
When confronted in the Discord about this, Map1n stated that "I didn’t relicense any code except my own. The rest still remains under MIT". The Repo does not reflect that. The repo should explicitly state what is covered under which license (dual-licensing), which doesn't involve having to look at git history, seeing who contributed what.
I would recommend you revert this until you have this correct.