Arch Linux

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,565

Publishing aur packages on sourcehut - what license to use ?

Recently I setup an 'amateur hacker' account at https://sourcehut.org/ , so now I can create (public) git repos .

I would like to use it as backup source for aur packages I maintain or co-maintain.
The PKGBUILD and other needed files typically don't have a license and combine efforts by many people.

Switching to the 0BSD license as adopted for repo packages requires contacting all contributors and ask for their consent.
This is near impossible for aur packages.

My personal view is that PKGBUILDs and related files are not original works so a license is not applicable or needed .
How could that be put in a COPYING file ?

I'll post this to aur ML later, but would like some input from forum users first.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

twelveeighty

Member

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 1,420

Re: Publishing aur packages on sourcehut - what license to use ?

For those PKGBUILDs that do not currently have a license, my view is that you do not need to "contact all contributors", since their implied consent is by not demanding a specific license on the "work" in the first place and it already being in the public domain by being on the AUR today.
If the PKGBUILD does have a license, keep that license, under the assumption that it permits distribution to sourcehut. If it doesn't permit distribution, then it probably shouldn't be on the AUR in the first place.

Be aware, though, that your position of "PKGBUILDs are not original works" won't likely hold up in a legal dispute, so "properly" licensing the PKGBUILDs is the right approach (and don't change it if it does have a license already).