How should I make sure I keep in line with licences and credit helpers?

Question

Hi all.

I have been working on a java sim game for some time, and finally ready to open it up online and allow other developers to help me. (Using google code)

There are several parts to this question. Firstly, I've used the pathfinding code from the cokeandcode site (which you may or may not know). I contacted the author and he said its using the BSD license. I have edited some of the code, but happy for my edits to remain in BSD.

I was planning to use the MIT license (However I may change this to BSD). I have seen in other google code projects, that the license appears at the top of each file of code. Is this necessary or is it ok to just include it in the wiki?

Secondly, I have had help from various people from here (THANKS! :) and I want to credit them help where due. I thought using their SO username and linking to the questions URL would be a reasonable idea. Thoughts?

Any other comments or suggestions welcome.

Thanks again all of you here at Stack Overflow! :)

Answer 1

It is entirely appropriate to credit the users who have contributed as long this is done with their understanding. In some cases you may need their permission. You may want to distinguish between active and previous contributors at some point. Sometimes an indidividual will need to check with their employer so these things can take a while, or open up a can of worms (but that is not your problem).

Source files should have the associated license file in the header. This is good practice because it is very explicit if you have multiple licenses governing all the code in a ZIP file. It's easy to move files around and not think about the license that applies if you put all GPL code in a /gpl directory but don't put that license in every source file. In addition, the license will be unknown if a developer emails a file to a colleague from their personal code collection.

In terms of auditing code it would be nice to see copies of any communications with outside developers on a wiki or in the source tree. This would be a nice courtesy to other developers. You should redact the personal information of a developer such as an email address.

Answer 2

I was planning to use the MIT license (However I may change this to BSD). I have seen in other google code projects, that the license appears at the top of each file of code. Is this necessary or is it ok to just include it in the wiki??

According to the MIT License page on Wikipedia, the license terms contain:

[...]

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

[...]

This should answer your question. But, if I may, I think it would be a good idea to read carefully the terms of the license you'll choose, you might find some useful informations in them :)

Secondly, I have had help from various people from here (THANKS! :) and I want to credit them help where due. I thought using their SO username and linking to the questions URL would be a reasonable idea. Thoughts?

To my knowledge, there is no clause in the MIT license prohibiting the use of the names of contributors. This is one of the major difference with the BSD license in which the names of the contributors may not be used without their explicit permission. This provides protection to contributors in the event that the product is associated with a poorly written program.

Any other comments or suggestions welcome.

Well, the MIT license is is probably the simplest license. So there is not much to say.