Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/aldrinmathew/publicsource

The official repository of the Public Source Licence
https://github.com/aldrinmathew/publicsource

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

The official repository of the Public Source Licence

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
# Public Source Licence



You can freely report any issues and ask for any additions or clarifications.



**Make sure that you include [this file](https://github.com/AldrinMathew/PublicSource/raw/main/LICENCE) in your project, preferably with the same filename. It is highly recommended to include the file in the root folder of your project, so that it is easy for the public to access.**



The following is the summary of the latest version of this licence, that you may include in the beginning of your source files. It is optional, but recommended for large projects.



## License



```

 : Copyright (c)  : 



PUBLIC SOURCE LICENCE - 1.0



This project is licensed under the Public Source Licence 1.0



- You are allowed to obtain and view the source material of

  this project, free-of-cost.



- You are allowed to distribute the source of this project

  without any modifications, free-of-cost. This licence should

  be provided along with the source of the project. You are NOT

  allowed to sell the source of this project.



- You are allowed to build/process the source of this project.

  If the resultant product is distributed publicly free-of-cost

  by the author, then you are also allowed to redistribute the

  unmodified resultant product freely. However, this does not

  grant you permission to rebrand or sell the resultant product

  or build artefacts, in complete or incomplete form. If the

  resultant product (binary) is not distributed free-of-cost,

  you are NOT allowed to sell or distribute the build results

  or the resultant product.



- You are allowed to use this project in your own projects. If

  this is a library project, or if the resultant product of

  this project is linked to your project: You are required to

  use the same Licence for your project ONLY IF your project

  exposes functionality of this project in any manner. If your

  project merely makes use of this project, without exposing

  functionality, you are free to choose any licence for your

  project.



- You are allowed to perform modifications for PRIVATE use.

  Any modifications you make, either in the source or the

  resultant product (binary) should NOT be distributed. Even

  if it is meant for private use, any modifications made

  is recommended to be noted within the source and possibly

  the resultant product of the modified project.



- You are NOT allowed to use the name, branding and identity

  of this project to identify or brand any other project. You

  are however allowed to use the name and branding to pinpoint

  the source of this project. You are not allowed to use the

  identification of the Authors of this project to associate

  them to other projects, in a way that is deceiving or

  misleading or gives out false information.



- The terms of this licence applies only to versions of the

  project that are explicitly licensed under it. This licence

  does not control or restrict the licensing of future

  versions of the project, unless those versions are also

  licensed under this licence. The author is free to change

  the licence in future versions.



- This licence does NOT grant permission for the source or the

  resultant product of this project to be used to train or

  feed Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning systems.

  Permission has to be granted explicitly by the author of

  this project for the source or the resultant product to be

  used for such purposes.



- The list of authors of this project may be listed at the

  beginning of this file, but it is not compulsory to list all

  contributors. The list is supposed to represent the primary

  list of authors, not all contributors - in case the project

  is open to minor contributions from the public. In case of

  major contributions from the public, it is recommended to

  include them in the list. Making contributions to this

  project without being a primary author does not grant you

  ownership over the project or its licensing terms. By making

  such contributions, you agree that such ownership is still

  in the hands of the primary authors.



- The sections named EXCEPTIONS, PHILOSOPHY and DEFINITIONS may

  be provided below, however they are not compulsory for the

  licence to be valid for the project. But any part of the

  licence other than these sections are required to be present

  for the licence to be valid.



Unless required by applicable law, this project is provided

"AS IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OR PROMISES OF ANY KIND, either

expressed or implied. The author(s) of this project is not

liable for any harms, errors or troubles caused by using the

source or the product, unless implied by law. By using this

project, or part of it, you are acknowledging the complete

terms and conditions of licensing of this project as specified

in Public Source Licence 1.0 available at this URL:



https://github.com/aldrinmathew/PublicSource/



This project may contain parts that are not licensed under the

same terms. If so, it is recommended that the licences of those

parts are appropriately included. Such relevant files or parts

may be mentioned in the following section named EXCEPTIONS. It

is recommended, but not compulsory.



--------- EXCEPTIONS ---------



This project does not explicitly mention any files/materials

that are licensed differently. You can assess the source to

find parts that could be licensed differently.



```



## Philosophy



The real world interpretation of open source is flawed, as it is often meant to be "Free and Open Source" instead of just "Open Source". And because of that, this licence is not compatible with the definition of Open Source by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Instead this licence follows the true meaning of "open" source, allowing the source to be viewed and distributed by the public free of cost. However, advertising that this licence promotes "open" source can lead to ambiguity and confusion as there is another interpretation of the concept known to the public.



"Free and Open Source" have been a significant pillar of Software Development for decades now. However, in practice, especially in the modern age, FOSS culture promotes toxic work ethics and slave labour. While this opinion can be interpreted as being woke for the sake of being woke, I humbly request you to think about how FOSS truly works. It has paved way for corporations to take advantage of entry-level software developers. Newcomers are trained to think that sacrificing their time for FOSS projects are good for their career. Even experienced people are now peer-pressured into maintaining a portfolio of FOSS projects to qualify for jobs. But they are not supposed to focus "too much" on their projects as then they might not be reliable and might spend too much time on their work instead of that of the corporations. FOSS contributors are almost completely unpaid and good public projects often arise out of the painstaking sacrifices of a few people. Corporations freely take advantage of such projects and contributors. The social nature of certain code hosting sites have encouraged a lot of garbage projects to be published. The "cost-free" nature of some popular FOSS projects have trained the software ecosystem to discourage creators or authors from earning from their own work. There are violent retaliations often against changes in project licenses. FOSS consistently promotes the notion that anyone can contribute to software projects, and this directly affects the quality of the source code. That notion is insane in the face of it. Just think about it. Do we say the same thing about any other professions? The amount of noise in the software ecosystem has increased massively and maintainers often have to weed through a lot of useless information to find relevant issues and contributions. It feels like the the backbone of the software ecosystem is held hostage by the public, in the name of Open Source.



However, I wholeheartedly acknowledge that FOSS has many benefits over the closed-source/proprietory approach. It offers many security benefits, and also cultivates transparency in the software ecosystem. More bugs are found and fixed. There are automated systems to deliver security updates for projects. People are encouraged to find issues and bugs. Issues are publicly available to be reviewed and discussed. It makes software accessible for majority of the population. People can learn from a diverse array of projects. The Public Source licence is designed to provide most if not all of these benefits. The major difference being that this licence does not support modifications of the project to be freely published and distributed. And also enables original authors to distribute their product commercially.