[HN Gopher] Htmx changes license to Zero-Clause BSD
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Htmx changes license to Zero-Clause BSD
        
       Author : jicea
       Score  : 178 points
       Date   : 2024-01-15 17:14 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | samsquire wrote:
       | I use the zero clause licence for my all my work because it just
       | removes all the overhead of using my code.
       | 
       | I think (please correct my understanding) zero clause BSD can be
       | embedded in a GPL project too, it just becomes one-way included,
       | subsumed into the GPL project and then under the GPL licence.
       | (Relicenced)
       | 
       | Could the author of HTMX explain their reasoning for changing the
       | licence? I am curious?
        
         | stavros wrote:
         | IANAL, but yep, that sounds about right, the more restrictive
         | license then applies. Of course, anyone can use the original,
         | BSD copy of the code, without the restrictions.
        
           | samsquire wrote:
           | I would have hope that anybody who uses your code doesn't
           | want to keep it a secret, because it would be good if people
           | use the same common base code and changes can benefit
           | everyone.
           | 
           | Since there's no requirement to credit a zero clause licenced
           | BSD code, someone who receives the BSD code compiled might
           | not know it's included but that's the risk I'm taking.
        
         | recursivedoubts wrote:
         | It was mainly as a joke, but I wanted to remove the attribution
         | clauses, they just seemed dumb for a single-file javascript
         | library that was probably going to be minimized anyway, where
         | are you supposed to stick the license?
        
           | skybrian wrote:
           | Some companies are careful to include all the libraries'
           | licenses when minimizing JavaScript code. There are tools to
           | do it. But it seems wasteful, so it's great that you removed
           | the requirement.
        
       | recursivedoubts wrote:
       | background:
       | 
       | - over the weekend I started making the @htmx_org twitter account
       | increasingly corporate looking
       | 
       | - started talking a lot about MSFT, implying they were interested
       | in htmx
       | 
       | - someone asked if MSFT was going to buy htmx:
       | https://fxtwitter.com/htmx_org/status/1746656784088228204
       | 
       | - i then put up a post about changing the htmx license, implying
       | i was going to restrict it due to MSFT interest:
       | https://fxtwitter.com/htmx_org/status/1746736273728094323
       | 
       | - I then made is 0BSD instead of 2BSD:
       | https://fxtwitter.com/htmx_org/status/1746880860723544211
       | 
       | - I then posted the "offer" i got from MSFT (some credit card
       | thing) https://fxtwitter.com/htmx_org/status/1746895016256328079
       | 
       | - And explained how there were no lies involved in the ruse:
       | https://fxtwitter.com/htmx_org/status/1746924827641102719
       | 
       | the reason i did all this is for the lols
        
         | saghm wrote:
         | > - I then posted the "offer" i got from MSFT (some credit card
         | thing)
         | https://fxtwitter.com/htmx_org/status/1746895016256328079
         | 
         | Know your worth; don't sell out for anything under 20% cash
         | back at Bed, Bath & Beyond!
        
           | internet101010 wrote:
           | Only applicable to private label items.
        
             | dan15 wrote:
             | I used one of their 20% off coupons for a Simplehuman bin a
             | while back (one of the ones with recycling on the left and
             | trash on the right).
             | 
             | Having said that, I don't think they actually take coupons
             | any more. It stopped when all the physical stores closed.
             | The offer here is a cash back offer, where you pay the full
             | price then another company (like TopCashback, Rakuten,
             | apparently Microsoft too) gives you 10% cash back.
        
               | philwelch wrote:
               | I always felt like "simplehuman" was the kind of brand
               | name a condescending AI would come up with. "Simple
               | human, buy this trash can and I will sell you overpriced,
               | custom-fitting trash bags forever!"
        
         | kamikaz1k wrote:
         | what does the fx in fxtwitter.com mean?
        
           | aatd86 wrote:
           | Fix twitter...
           | 
           | Just kidding... Foreign exchange....
           | 
           | Kidding again... I don't actually know.
        
           | nouryqt wrote:
           | Fix, it's mostly used for having embeds work again in discord
           | and such
           | 
           | https://github.com/FixTweet/FxTwitter
        
           | disintegrator wrote:
           | https://github.com/FixTweet/FxTwitter
        
           | softinio wrote:
           | I was wondering same .... found this:
           | 
           | https://docs.fxtwitter.com/en/latest/index.html#
        
           | geek_at wrote:
           | since the WHOIS states it's DNS servers are hosted by
           | cloudflare (twitter is hosted by twtrdns.net) it seems to be
           | a "fuck x - twitter.com" forwarding domain. Maybe also with
           | some tracking to see how many people clicked the link but
           | that's just speculation
        
         | isoprophlex wrote:
         | Absolute madman
         | 
         | Should have gone for the "do whatever the fuck you want"
         | license though
        
           | recursivedoubts wrote:
           | i went to berkeley so i have a soft spot for BSD (even though
           | BSD0 technically isn't derived from BSD)
        
             | bombcar wrote:
             | 0BSD scares a lot less people than the various "public
             | domain" or "wtf" licenses, let me tell you.
             | 
             | Lawyers don't like things they don't recognize.
        
         | bruh2 wrote:
         | I love your spirit. Actually funny
        
         | purple_ferret wrote:
         | Your lack of professional seriousness is truly astounding.
         | 
         | One of the primary reasons we've gone with React/NextJS coupled
         | with MongoDB and Kubernetes over HTMX
        
           | sgift wrote:
           | Talks about lack of professional seriousness. Goes with
           | MongoDB. Sometimes reality writes the best jokes.
        
             | endisneigh wrote:
             | What's wrong with mongodb?
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | I can't speak to its current state, but there were some
               | highly dubious design decisions early in its life, such
               | as the library would reply to the client indicating a
               | successful push of data into the database _before the
               | network request even left the local computer_.
        
               | endisneigh wrote:
               | The past mongodb issues don't seem relevant unless they
               | persist today, no?
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | Reputational damage is difficult to recover from.
        
               | endisneigh wrote:
               | That's not relevant to the question of "what's wrong with
               | mongodb?" It seems folks just regurgitate memes without
               | any understanding of the current product.
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | I thought "I can't speak to its current state" explained
               | that I could not, in fact, speak to its current state.
               | 
               | But when it comes to databases, which are often the
               | single most important part of an architecture, you'll
               | find that many people are less forgiving of old sins,
               | especially when Postgres now has native JSON support.
               | 
               | Much like I won't trust Uber with my location, or Google
               | with my email, I won't trust Mongo with my data.
        
               | endisneigh wrote:
               | Why even reply if you don't know what you're talking
               | about in terms of current mongo? Not sure what Postgres
               | or Uber or Google even has to do with this.
               | 
               | FYI using mongo is more than simply wanting a json
               | interface.
        
               | Literalyevery wrote:
               | Mongodb was/is for a long time inconsistent. You had to
               | worry loosing data when using mongo.
               | 
               | And everything mongodb brought us, was either implemented
               | by someone else better or already existed.
               | 
               | If you use mongodb today, just go with postgres and
               | forget about mongo
        
               | endisneigh wrote:
               | Yes there used to be issues with mongo (and Postgres
               | around serializable for the matter). What are the issues
               | in 2024?
        
               | osalberger wrote:
               | Breaks causal consistency and a bunch of other
               | assumptions:
               | 
               | https://jepsen.io/analyses/mongodb-4.2.6
        
               | endisneigh wrote:
               | 4 years old. Mongodb is at version 7 now.
        
               | tobltobs wrote:
               | So MongoDB was an inconsistent DB for at least 70% of its
               | lifetime. It doesn't sound too ensuring.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | It's webscale.
        
             | robertlagrant wrote:
             | I'm pretty sure that was a joke.
        
               | sodapopcan wrote:
               | I wasn't sure at first but on a re-read it now seems
               | glaringly obvious it's a joke :D
        
               | paulddraper wrote:
               | I wasn't sure either until the gratuitous "coupled with
               | MongoDB and Kubernetes" lol
        
               | ASalazarMX wrote:
               | And it was indeed written by someone real! Astounding!
        
             | drcongo wrote:
             | Sometimes the best jokes look like reality.
        
           | notfed wrote:
           | Poe would like a word with you.
        
           | markski wrote:
           | you chose your stack by weighing the professionalism of the
           | twitter account?
        
             | lmeyerov wrote:
             | may you never have to maintain production code...
        
               | markski wrote:
               | i do. what now?
        
               | lmeyerov wrote:
               | may you and the people relying on you never have to rely
               | on the maintainers taking things more seriously than
               | they've shown themselves to in their public positioning
        
               | markski wrote:
               | HTMX has existed for nearly a decade (prev.
               | intercoolerjs); 1cg has proven to be extremely invested
               | in it, and the whole philosophy around it in general
               | (even being in charge of an "Hypermedia Research Group"
               | at Montana university). To dismiss all of the credibility
               | he has created with his work just because the guy wants
               | to be funny on twitter is nothing short of stupid.
        
               | lmeyerov wrote:
               | This appears to be the official account, not a personal
               | one. If he wants me to take htmx seriously as a prod
               | dependency, I care about how he treats it, all the way
               | from code to governance to community interactions.
               | 
               | He has no such obligation to do these things, this is all
               | his choice. I'm not sure why the contention? If you read
               | my comment, it was strictly about production scenarios,
               | not about all credibility for all scenarios. If this
               | project is meant to be treated as fun CRAPL, Matthew
               | Might made a great license for that:
               | https://matt.might.net/articles/crapl/ .
        
               | markski wrote:
               | I apologize for the contention - I misunderstood what
               | your point was which made my writing a little too
               | aggressive.
               | 
               | I still hold the position that the social media presence
               | of the project should be inconsequential for considering
               | it's production usage. But I can see your point now, even
               | if I disagree.
        
               | clivestaples wrote:
               | I see your point but I let the technology do the talking.
               | People focus on personalities but the work is what
               | matters to me. I used to get annoyed at DHH but then I
               | just ignored it and built stuff really fast.
        
               | rakoo wrote:
               | 1. They are the maintainers of htmx, not the maintainers
               | of your code. There is no contract with them.
               | 
               | 2. The joke made by the maintainer gives absolutely no
               | insight into how they will behave if there were a
               | contract. If anything, that might mean the maintainer
               | actually is a human that is agreeable to talk and work
               | with, because they don't take it so seriously as to
               | forbid any jokes.
               | 
               | Professionalism doesn't mean "no jokes allowed", it means
               | "do your best".
        
           | recursivedoubts wrote:
           | That's a great option, many people choose it!
        
           | recursivedoubts wrote:
           | OK, I'll respond in a bit more detail to this, now that it's
           | closer to the top. I'll assume you are being serious as well
           | (always hard to tell online.)
           | 
           | I understand where you are coming from, the @htmx_org twitter
           | account is very silly. This can be a big turn off to some
           | developers and companies. On the other hand, I do have a fair
           | number of serious essays on the htmx website
           | (https://htmx.org/essays) and a free book that is also
           | serious (https://hypermedia.systems).
           | 
           | I view twitter as a tool for getting the word out about htmx
           | and, therefore, use it in that manner. I don't think that
           | medium supports super-nuanced discussions (although I've had
           | some.) I try to not be negative on it, and frequently link to
           | my essays for more in-depth discussions. I also enjoy being
           | funny and making people laugh.
           | 
           | And, while I can understand and sympathize with people who
           | dislike the general vibe of my account, you can't argue with
           | the success of this approach.
           | 
           | It has recently passed 27k stars on github:
           | 
           | https://star-history.com/#bigskysoftware/htmx&Date
           | 
           | And finished 2nd (!!!) in the js rising stars frameworks for
           | 2023:
           | 
           | https://risingstars.js.org/2023/en#section-framework
           | 
           | Plus #10 overall. This is a library created by a one-person
           | company that is trying to compete with the likes of Facebook,
           | Google and Vercel when it comes to developer mindshare. While
           | I would love to think it is the insightful essays, excellent
           | coding ability and the quality of my book, there is no doubt
           | that the twitter account has been a huge contributor to
           | htmx's success.
        
             | sodapopcan wrote:
             | I'm not OP, but I would like to think it's a joke. If they
             | were actually turned off by your "lack of professionalism"
             | they would like turn to Alpinejs before "React/NextJS
             | coupled with MongoDB and Kubernetes" :) But who knows!
        
         | giancarlostoro wrote:
         | > the reason i did all this is for the lols
         | 
         | Do the lols while you still can, the Trust and Safety
         | departments at major social media companies want to extinguish
         | funny.
         | 
         | Everyone who does even a smidgen of memeing on the internet
         | knows what happens when you post images of large spiders.
         | People start talking about burning things down, like the entire
         | building its inside of, etc. Someone posted a video where a
         | little girl had one crawling on her hand, it was bigger than
         | her face. I said "Girl get away from that spider, we have to
         | set the house on fire" and the AI anti-funny overlords at
         | Facebook deleted my comment, and gave me some sort of "strike"
         | and then I appealed, and was auto denied.
         | 
         | Our favorite Sci-Fi dystopias coming soon, to a Trust and
         | Safety social media site nightmare near you.
        
           | recursivedoubts wrote:
           | The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're
           | already cancelled.
           | 
           | The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to
           | function as a shiposter is supposed to function: without
           | mercy, without anxiety, without remorse.
           | 
           | All shiposting depends upon it.
        
             | giancarlostoro wrote:
             | I mean, I just stopped using Facebook instead, I was an
             | admin for my employer at the times Facebook app (used for
             | login) so I did not want to risk it. It's Facebooks loss.
        
             | ordinaryradical wrote:
             | We happy few, we band of brothers.
        
           | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
           | Meanwhile someone was using my late brother's name and
           | face(in a list of supposed "vaccine casualties". My brother
           | died from heart failure after lifelong illness, age 39) to
           | spread vile antivaxx/protrump stuff.
           | 
           | All reports denied. It was glaringly obvious she was a paid
           | misinfo troll.
        
             | somat wrote:
             | Just a question, I don't pay much attention to politics,
             | are the two related? are anti vaxers pro trump? The vaccine
             | was developed on Trumps watch.
             | 
             | I figured it was just like any other boss, takes all the
             | credit if it works. desperately tries to shift blame if it
             | does not.
        
               | pgeorgi wrote:
               | There's some correlation, and while Trump tried to take
               | credit for Operation Warp Speed for a while[0], he
               | distanced himself from everything related to "Covid is a
               | threat" (including "it needs vaccines") when the tide
               | shifted in his voter base and they went fiercely antivax,
               | antidistancing, antilockdown, ...
               | 
               | [0] the process was pretty much the same speed for non-
               | participants in non-participant countries, but okay: his
               | administration made it a priority. Gold star for you!
        
               | giancarlostoro wrote:
               | I used to watch loads of political speeches, including
               | Biden and Trumps because otherwise you take someone
               | else's word for what they say, and I still remember the
               | boo's he got in one of his early speeches after Biden was
               | sworn in, the entire crowd booed when he said to go out
               | and get vaccinated, then he said "if you want to" after
               | he realized his 'goof.' It was like he was not paying any
               | attention to his base since losing the White House (again
               | this was like his second (I think?) rally since). Then he
               | changed his strategy with his base on it after. So you're
               | not wrong. I think he still brings it up, but briefly.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | It amuses me, personally, seeing the "antivax" crowd
               | quickly being equalized to all the other various "bad"
               | people - 20 years ago, there was a strong but quiet
               | "antivax" crowd and it was _definitely_ not made up of
               | Trump or even R-leaning people. It was quite the  "hippy
               | liberal progressive" if you had to qualify it.
               | 
               | But then again, twenty years ago you had all sorts of
               | political positions you could take, now everything is
               | simply binary. You have no agency.
        
               | cqqxo4zV46cp wrote:
               | It doesn't sound it like it amuses you. You sound kind of
               | miffed off about it.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | Fair enough, it's a bit annoying because now you need
               | about five seconds and you can replace almost anyone (at
               | least online) with a tuned LLM without much thought.
               | 
               | It was fun to watch people disagree about things, that's
               | mostly gone in the political world (and that world eats
               | all discussion boards eventually, in my experience).
        
             | giancarlostoro wrote:
             | After my cousin passed away his mother took over the
             | account. They used it to spew hatred and condemn people. I
             | don't think the account was ever shut down.
        
         | clwg wrote:
         | bravo, what editor did you use to change the license file?
        
           | recursivedoubts wrote:
           | WebStorm
        
             | neoromantique wrote:
             | absolutely proprietary :<
        
               | recursivedoubts wrote:
               | yeah i'm not doctrinaire about things and I don't mind
               | paying for my tools
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | Good for you, and the spirit of open software.
        
       | singron wrote:
       | This made me wonder what the shortest open source license is, and
       | it seems to be the Fair License:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_License
       | 
       | > <Copyright Information>
       | 
       | >
       | 
       | > Usage of the works is permitted provided that this instrument
       | is retained with the works, so that any entity that uses the
       | works is notified of this instrument.
       | 
       | >
       | 
       | > DISCLAIMER: THE WORKS ARE WITHOUT WARRANTY.
       | 
       | EDIT: I would not use this license. I'm not sure how this got
       | approved by the OSI, but I'm not a lawyer. Some of the email
       | threads think the disclaimer is insufficient, and I'm not
       | entirely sure that it confers all the expected rights since it
       | only says "Usage" (copying, modification, distribution).
        
         | kotborealis wrote:
         | "Don't ask me about it License" looks a bit shorter[0].
         | 
         | 0: https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-
         | licenses/blob/master/dont...
        
         | hiccuphippo wrote:
         | Is License golf a thing? ChatGPT reduces that from 205 to 130
         | bytes:
         | 
         | The works can be used as long as this instrument is kept
         | alongside them to notify users. The works are provided without
         | warranty.
        
       | saghm wrote:
       | Is "zero-clause BSD" a joke, or is it considered a legitimate
       | license? If the latter, does it actually differ from the MIT
       | license in anything other than name?
        
         | sethops1 wrote:
         | It is approved by OSI[1]
         | 
         | [1] https://opensource.org/license/0bsd/
        
         | explodingcamera wrote:
         | zero-clause BSD is essentially a modified MIT that doesn't even
         | require attribution, so essentially a "public domain" like
         | license.
        
         | kube-system wrote:
         | Presuming that 'MIT' was a typo: most BSD-licensed software
         | doesn't use the original (4-clause) BSD license, most are under
         | variants:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses
        
           | saghm wrote:
           | No, it wasn't a typo; the 0-clause BSD looks pretty similar
           | to the MIT license, and from a cursory reading, it appears
           | that the clauses are what makes the BSD license different
           | from the MIT license. I was wondering if my reading is
           | correct or if I've missed something.
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | MIT has several (very important) requirements that BSD-0
             | does not. MIT is more similar to BSD-2-clause. It requires
             | the user to include the copyright notice and disclaimer in
             | any distributions.
        
         | 0x69420 wrote:
         | it eschews attribution, making it just about the closest thing
         | to a public-domain dedication that still retains the
         | appropriate verbiage to hold up to legal scrutiny
        
           | mminer237 wrote:
           | In the US, simply saying "I hereby dedicate this work to the
           | public domain." is as an effective, if not more effective,
           | way to do that as any license. These licenses are just for
           | countries like Germany that basically make it illegal to
           | sell, gift, or release a copyright at all.
        
         | MzHN wrote:
         | There's also another OSI approved "zero" license called MIT-0
         | 
         | https://opensource.org/license/mit-0/
        
       | simonw wrote:
       | I hadn't seen Zero-Clause BSD before:
       | https://opensource.org/license/0bsd/
       | 
       | > Note: Despite its name, Zero-Clause BSD is an alteration of the
       | ISC license, and is not textually derived from licenses in the
       | BSD family. Zero-Clause BSD was originally approved under the
       | name "Free Public License 1.0.0".
       | 
       | Anyone seen a good write-up of the tradeoffs for this license? I
       | like how short and simple it is.
        
         | ameliaquining wrote:
         | It's appropriate for software designed for use cases where an
         | attribution requirement would be inconvenient or otherwise
         | undesirable. For example, https://github.com/microsoft/tslib
         | uses it, because that library is automatically included in any
         | TypeScript program that uses downleveling, so if it had an
         | attribution requirement then that requirement would apply to
         | every program written in TypeScript, which nobody wants. (GCC
         | and LLVM do something similar with their special runtime-
         | library exceptions to the GPL and Apache License, respectively,
         | but tslib lives in a separate repository from the rest of
         | TypeScript and so could easily just get a separate license.)
        
       | theanonymousone wrote:
       | Is there a license that requires (or encourages) contributing
       | back the modifications, _but only if the upstream project is open
       | source/non-commercial_?
        
         | zilti wrote:
         | You'd have to dual license your code afaik, the way Qt did/does
         | it
        
       | p8donald wrote:
       | If I contribute code to an open source project under the BSD
       | 2-Clause license and don't sign any contributor license
       | agreement, can the maintainer relicense the code without getting
       | my permission?
        
         | njharman wrote:
         | Sure, anyone can do anything. It would be up to you (and
         | hopefully a lawyer) to then sue them and let judge/jury decide.
         | Or, convince authorities that some criminal law was violated
         | and they should investigate.
         | 
         | Both of which are hard and/or expensive. So most rely on public
         | shame. Out them on social media and foment outrage.
        
         | colejohnson66 wrote:
         | In the US, generally no.
        
       | logicprog wrote:
       | The state of software licenses makes me a bit sad. On the one
       | hand we have open source licenses like the MIT and Apache 2.0
       | licenses that give corporations free reign to enclose and exploit
       | the software commons without any real limit or any requirement to
       | give back to the things they are getting rich off of, and then on
       | the other hand we have the GPL and LGPL licenses which are too
       | aggressive and stringent, while also being somewhat vague -- see
       | for instance the almost superstitious fear companies have about
       | using LGPL code even when it would probably be fine -- which
       | means that almost no one ends up using those licenses, because
       | companies are too afraid to use software that is licensed under
       | them (and therefore wouldn't be invested in them at all, which
       | means they give back to those projects _even less_ than they do
       | for projects under open source licenses) and because even FLOSS
       | developers just don 't want to deal with the dependency headaches
       | of using GPL code. Which in turn ironically means that, despite
       | being designed to very aggressively protect and help the software
       | commons, the GPL and LGPL licenses end up doing _worse_ for the
       | software commons then open source licenses do, in general,
       | because no one uses them or invests in them in the first place,
       | and _of course_ there are going to be fewer contributions to the
       | software commons from a license that is never used or invested in
       | then there are going to be from a license that is widely used and
       | deeply invested in but has fewer requirements, because it 's a
       | matter of percentages essentially. So in essence both licenses
       | fail to do what at least I feel like they should ideally do,
       | although for opposite reasons.
       | 
       | Ultimately, I think this stems from the fact that Open Source
       | licenses were explicitly created by people who wanted to be
       | friendly to corporations, and the GPL licenses were created by
       | the FSF, who are essentially the vegans of software. So I think
       | in the long run what we need is a free software movement that is
       | detached from _both_ the dogmatism and absolutism of the Free
       | Software Foundation _and_ the desire to suck up with
       | corporations. A movement that perhaps sees itself as being a
       | check on the balance of corporations in the software world, but
       | in a more pragmatic way.
       | 
       | I think the sort of license a movement like that might produce
       | might end up looking something like the MPL 2.0: it allows
       | combined works that use the existing code _in any way they want_
       | , while requiring changes or improvements _to the existing code_
       | to be shared back to the community, so that there is a clear
       | requirement to give back to the things you benefited from,
       | without trying to also take away the things you or your team
       | wrote themselves.
       | 
       | This is similar to the LGPL, but unlike that license the basic
       | unit of separation is clearer: files. Original source code files
       | and any files containing substantial portions of code copied from
       | the original source code are considered part of the original
       | work, and therefore something to which changes must be
       | contributed back to the community, but anything outside those
       | files can stay proprietary. This is a lot clearer and more
       | flexible than the LGPL, meaning developers from FOSS and from
       | corporations can use code under the without headaches, while
       | still not allowing companies to just completely free ride on the
       | things the software community makes, and we get to have both
       | because unlike the LGPL the MPL is willing to sacrifice some
       | stringency and control in return for those benefits.
       | 
       | Additionally, and perhaps _more_ importantly, it doesn 't have
       | particularly onerous source distribution requirements or
       | requirements to distribute your own application as object code or
       | provide some other way for users to swap out the version of the
       | free software code that's being used, which likewise does
       | sacrifice some FSF purity, but in return for a massive decrease
       | in the complexity, onerousness, and annoyingness of the license
       | requirements as a whole. So yeah, the MPL isn't perfect -- maybe
       | the ideal free software license would be the LGPL with just
       | clearer specification of where the boundaries are between the
       | LGPL code and the proprietary code, and no annoying object code
       | or dynamic linking requirements -- but it's a lot closer to where
       | I think we need to move with licenses. I don't think zero clause
       | open source licenses are the way.
        
         | jabl wrote:
         | I like the MPL 2.0 and use it for some of my own software as it
         | best seems to describe the outcome that I want (incorporate it
         | into whatever you want, but please contribute improvements to
         | the MPL licensed parts of the software back to upstream).
         | 
         | However, I also think it's fairly easy to circumvent for a
         | hypothetical leech that just wants to use my code without
         | contributing back any improvements. Namely just put the
         | improvements into a separate proprietary file, and insert stubs
         | in the MPL licensed file calling the proprietary code. Taking
         | this argument to the extreme, one should use either something
         | extremely permissive like 0BSD or then go full AGPLv3, as
         | everything inbetween is to an extent possible to circumvent
         | without too much trouble (GPL "condoms" and all that).
        
           | logicprog wrote:
           | > However, I also think it's fairly easy to circumvent for a
           | hypothetical leech that just wants to use my code without
           | contributing back any improvements. Namely just put the
           | improvements into a separate proprietary file, and insert
           | stubs in the MPL licensed file calling the proprietary code.
           | 
           | Yeah this is the work around that came to mind when I first
           | read the MPL, and it's what I had in mind when I said it
           | isn't perfect. I'm using it for a current game engine project
           | I'm working on, and will probably use it for any of my other
           | work moving forward, but I definitely think it isn't the end
           | of license history -- there is still a _lot_ more improvement
           | that could be made. I was just giving it as an example of
           | what I think the correct direction is, in contrast to the
           | current extremes. I think it 's where more work on licenses
           | should go.
        
           | mook wrote:
           | I like MPL too (depending on context), but do be aware that
           | (per section 10) Mozilla is allowed to ship new versions of
           | the license and people can choose to use those new versions
           | in place of the version you licensed under. This is not
           | inherently bad -- many projects are licensed under "GPL 3 or
           | later", for example -- but it's something to be aware of. See
           | also CDDL, which is mostly MPL but Sun (and now Oracle) in
           | place of Mozilla Foundation.
        
             | logicprog wrote:
             | Oh I didnt know that, good to know. Another area where it
             | isn't perfect!
        
         | Guid_NewGuid wrote:
         | I don't understand the view that MIT and Apache 2.0 make it
         | possible for corporations to somehow destroy or enclose the
         | commons. Code is code. It can't be destroyed, its cost of
         | duplication is effectively zero. If I take some open source
         | code, add my changes and distribute a paid, closed-source,
         | version, nothing has been removed/lost.
         | 
         | Certainly they make it hard/impossible to build a business from
         | Open Source code. Unfortunately in an economic system designed
         | to maximise the reward for value capture at the cost of value
         | creators this is a common problem. But I believe the answer to
         | that is more communism, not more licenses with more convoluted
         | requirements creating jobs for legal departments for shared
         | code.
        
           | logicprog wrote:
           | > I don't understand the view that MIT and Apache 2.0 make it
           | possible for corporations to somehow destroy or enclose the
           | commons. Code is code. It can't be destroyed, its cost of
           | duplication is effectively zero. If I take some open source
           | code, add my changes and distribute a paid, closed-source,
           | version, nothing has been removed/lost.
           | 
           | You are technically correct in this, and technically speaking
           | perhaps I should have put what I said in terms of the free
           | rider problem, not necessarily enclosure of the commons, but
           | two things: first, I do think what corporations do with open
           | source software is to some degree more analogous to such an
           | enclosure, since in a free rider problem we typically imagine
           | a few or even very large number of lazy individuals just not
           | paying for something, whereas in the enclosure of the commons
           | it is the rich and large corporations benefiting from the
           | work of more common folk, and the power dynamics of what
           | happens in software look more like the latter than the
           | former. Second, you're forgetting embrace, extend,
           | extinguish, which very much does have the effect of
           | destroying things by commercial cooption and absorbtion.
           | 
           | > Certainly they make it hard/impossible to build a business
           | from Open Source code. Unfortunately in an economic system
           | designed to maximise the reward for value capture at the cost
           | of value creators this is a common problem. But I believe the
           | answer to that is more communism, not more licenses with more
           | convoluted requirements creating jobs for legal departments
           | for shared code.
           | 
           | I sort of view licenses that require contributing any
           | improvements you've made to something back to the collective
           | pool from which you got it as a form of communism, even if in
           | this case it is embedded in and enforced by a capitalist
           | system.
        
       | jbverschoor wrote:
       | I'm curious, what exactly would a VC or MSFT want with htmx? Just
       | talent? or the actual product/tech?
        
         | recursivedoubts wrote:
         | I don't think there's much VCs would want w/htmx: it's a really
         | simple concept implemented in a single js file w/no moats or
         | obvious market opportunities as far as i can tell, and I'm a
         | one man shop. I think I got the calls because htmx trended on
         | twitter a couple of times.
         | 
         | MSFT might want it because it's gotten a lot of attention
         | lately (finished #2 in
         | https://risingstars.js.org/2023/en#section-framework for 2023)
         | and would give them a front-end library in the game w/ React,
         | Vue, Svelte, etc. On the other hand, i've made the social media
         | account pretty toxic/funny (same thing) for a big tech company
         | and now the library is 0BSD, and htmx's agnosticism towards
         | back end tech doesn't really dovetail w/ the Microsoft ethos.
        
           | gen220 wrote:
           | VCs have taken a few positions in FOSS recently [1][2]. I
           | also don't understand the financial reasoning of investing in
           | the companies, for what they are. My guess is that it's an
           | option on having influence on relatively influential
           | developers in the mid-to-later stages of their career.
           | 
           | [1]: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/16/sequoia-backs-open-
           | source-...
           | 
           | [2]: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sequoia-open-source-
           | fello...
        
       | alberth wrote:
       | Public Domain
       | 
       | Does this effectively make htmx public domain?
        
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