can the license be changed to public domain

[jackzhp]

as title.

jack.

[zlatinb]

I'm not sure if public domain is possible, but something like Apache 2.0 might be. And even if public domain was possible, it's technically not a real license, it would be more like CC0.

I have written permission from most contributors to relicense to whatever, but not from all. That is a matter asking everybody on the contributor list to agree to a re-licensing.

There is one more obstacle, and that is the webui/src/main/css/i2pbote.css file. It is copy-pasted from the I2PBote application which is GPLv3, and the original authors are long gone. So either that CSS file needs to be removed, or rewritten, or the application needs to be split into multiple components with different licenses each.

And last but not least, I'm actually not unhappy with the current license. Can you tell me why you're interested in re-licensing?

[jackzhp]

I checked I2P software license: https://geti2p.net/en/get-involved/develop/licenses

Can you tell me why you're interested in re-licensing? I think with CC0, I can do whatever I like with the source code, but with GPL, I can not use it.

By the way, what do you want to protect? the source code from being reused? the protocol? For the protocol, does anyone has the right to reimplement the protocol and still join the network?

Jack

[zlatinb]

There are two main reasons MuWire is GPLv3:

1. So I can use code from other GPLv3 projects
2. So I can use code which is Apache2 licensed

Anyone can implement the protocol and join the network. I am even willing to consider re-licensing the core module to CC0 to help others who want to integrate a MuWire core in their product. But not the gui module, that I want to keep GPLv3.

Are you interested in joining the network? Or do you just want to reuse specific parts of the code for a different purpose? If you tell me more about what you plan to do I may be able to help you better.

[jackzhp]

I want to join the network, though I don't want to use those ui related stuff.

You can allow me to join the network, that's pretty enough for me. If you can use CC0 for your core module, then I guess other people can join the network much easier.

[zlatinb]

I'm happy to relicense the core to CC0. But everyone who has contributed to it must be happy too. Here is the list:

git log core > core.log
grep Author core.log | sort -u
Author: LoveIsGrief <[email protected]>
Author: Mikal Villa <[email protected]>
Author: Your Name <[email protected]>
Author: Zlatin Balevsky <[email protected]>
Author: zzz <[email protected]>

Zlatin Balevsky is me. "Your Name" obviously isn't real, so we can't ask them. LoveIsGrief has already given me written permission. I'll ask zzz, but Mikal Villa hasn't been responding to my emails - maybe you can try to contact him?

After that it's just a matter of uploading a core/LICENSE file and it will be CC0.

[zlatinb]

You can allow me to join the network, that's pretty enough for me.

No need to ask me for permission, just go ahead and join. Be aware that some of the documentation in the doc folder is obsolete, so the best thing to do is to ask me or look through the code.

That's why the ideal thing is to re-use the core module. But if you don't want to use a JVM language that will not be possible.