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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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I changed my license (bergie.iki.fi)

submitted 19 hours ago by HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/35110129

This year I decided to switch my “default license” to EUPL-1.2. This is an OSI-approved free software license created and published by the European Union. And it is quite a divergence from the licenses I’ve used in the past. EUPL is a strong copyleft license that closes the “SaaS loophole” by requiring reciprocal licensing regardless of how the software is distributed.

Over the years it has been clear that we in the “open source” camp (as opposed to the “free software” camp) were wrong all along.

We won the debate, and gained little for users or developers. All that our efforts did was to make it easier for big corporations build things more cheaply and for billionaires to become trillionaires.

And so it is time to stop messing about with permissive licenses. If corporations don’t want to use our software under our terms, they are free to spend the effort or tokens to build their own.

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[–] libewa@feddit.org 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

And the GPL has less legal garbage? One of the goals of the EUPL was that it can be understood by laymen, which doesn't really hold true for the GPL. Those "simple" licenses like the MIT license don't work in the EU btw, since you cannot completely renounce liability or copyright.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 12 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

You may be right about liability, I don't know. But public domain is a thing in the EU and it applies to expired copyright, things that cannot be copyrighted, explicit attribution etc.

Besides, the MIT license does not renounce copyright, on the contrary.

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Public domain is a thing in the EU but not releasing anything into public domain.

In Germany, I cannot renounce my copyright to anything. I can give you an indefinite, unrestricted license to do whatever but I still own the copyright. It will only ever become public domain 70 years after my death, not a day sooner or later.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I can give you an indefinite, unrestricted license to do whatever but I still own the copyright.

Isn't this distinction academic?

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 hours ago

Not quite, this does have certain legal implications. Check out the CC0 license's "Public License Fallback" text: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.en#fallback

The "license to do whatever" is more like a "license to do whatever except for whatever a court ruled I cannot give a license for".

[–] IanTwenty@piefed.social 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Didn't know about liability, you are refering to this recent change?

https://www.ibanet.org/European-Product-Liability-Directive-liability-for-software

[–] libewa@feddit.org 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe it's not the EU as a whole? But interestingly, your article says that FLOSS is exempt from these rules, which is great!

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Generally, what we have in the EU is strict liability for commercial products, but not for things like gifts or FOSS software developed in a non-commercial manner. Except when damages are caused on purpose or because of gross negligence.

Some examples (German law, which is quite strict about personal liability):

You cause an accident -> you are liable.
Your small kid causes an accident -> you are liable.
Your unleashed dog runs over the street, causes a truck to steer into a shop -> you are liable.
Your car does not work because of improper maintenance, and causes an accident -> you are liable.
Your dishwasher floods the flat below you with water while you are away -> you are liable.
Your car's assisted braking system goes out of control because of defective software delivered by the manufacturer -> the manufacturer is liable.
You gift somebody a car with a minor defect which you are not aware of, he has an accident -> no liability for you.
You knowingly gift somebody a car with defective brakes, without telling him, he has an accident -> you are liable.
Your physician uses some X-Ray device software which has a catastrophic bug and causes that you have radioactive burns all over your body -> the manufacturer of the software is liable.

(and here is where EU law probably differs form US law: In the US, software vendors can and do disclaim all liability. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE IN THE EU, and thus such a contractual clause is probably invalid in its entirety, while leaving the contract valid. (And that is why you should NOT write your own licenses.))

That X-Ray software uses a non-commercial contribution for solving matrices in Numerical Python which a volunteer wrote in 2015 -> the FOSS contributor is not liable, the responsibility is for the manufacturer to test for correctness of the free stuff.

What is interesting is: The EU has now decent security to the expectations which manufacturers of software or mechatronic systems are liable for.