Add a license

[jamesmaa]

What are your thoughts on adding a license for Kaishi to allow other people to contribute to this repository? I'm worried about bitrot and if you disappear the community would have to start over if Kaishi is by default copyrighted content

[donkuri]

Hi, sorry it took me a while to reply. I like the idea of having a license, but I am not fully sure how one would go about doing this due to the nature of the deck, especially the sentence audio.

[Ryu945]

If there is no issues with public use, can't you set setup this repository so anyone can clone this repository? Is that a function of the license @jamesmaa was talking about?

[donkuri]

Afaik anyone can fork this repository, and multiple people have.

[winghouchan]

If there is no issues with public use, can't you set setup this repository so anyone can clone this repository? Is that a function of the license @jamesmaa was talking about?

Afaik anyone can fork this repository, and multiple people have.

The lack of a license typically means an exclusive copyright by default. This means no permissions are granted for use, reproduction, distribution, modification, etc.

However, because this is a public repository hosted on GitHub, the GitHub Terms of Service means a license is granted with permissions to "use, display, and perform [...] through the GitHub Service and to reproduce [...] solely on GitHub as permitted through GitHub's functionality (for example, through forking)".

As a result, some permissions such as using and reproducing the contents of the repository are granted to a certain extent but, technically, no permission has been granted to distribute or modify the contents.

Whether such permissions are granted is up to you (and co-authors). Without a license, situations arise such as you intending for these permissions to not be granted but users (incorrectly) assuming they are because this a public repo; or you intend for these permissions to be granted but users are left uncertain because there's no explicit license and copyright law means these permissions aren't granted by default. Having a license makes your intentions specific.

choosealicense.com may help you make a start in choosing a license.

I am not fully sure how one would go about doing this due to the nature of the deck, especially the sentence audio.

What's the specific concern?

Taking a guess, based on the readme:

• Re-licensing from no license to a license. Check the answers in this OpenSource.SE Q&A.
• Using content from other sources. You may need a license that is compatible with others (see OpenSource.SE Q&A). You may also use multiple licenses for different parts (Anki itself is one example).

OpenSource.SE is a good place to get help regarding choosing a license. Before asking, see their guide.

[donkuri]

This is very illuminating thank you, I will take a look.