> which if true, means they don't need a license. (And if false, then they're in violation of the existing licenses anyway.)
Precisely my thoughts; either they're already violating the attribution requirements of such a license, or it's under Fair Use in which case the question is moot. There's no need to put them doubly into failure of compliance.
I'm not an attorney; I have worked professionally with IP policies and licenses for a number of years. I generally give the following suggestion to developers considering FOSS licenses: once you've put your code under an open license, assume that you no longer own today- you only own tomorrow.
What I mean by that is that once the source code is out there under a given open source license, it's best to consider it a total loss until the next time you change the code. Of course there's always the right to challenge and litigate, but this is often time-consuming, expensive, and an uphill battle. I can't even put a number on how many times I've dealt with teams who love the "warm fuzzy" of creating an open source project, but get apoplectic when they realize that means giving up quite a bit of control over anything published as FOSS (but it's a large quantity).
Having said all of that, I think OP is doing exactly the right thing in reconsidering the license. Maybe an OSI-approved FOSS license is not right for this project and a more restrictive license is appropriate, but personally I think that in the face of this new type of use case, most FOSS licenses should clarify and refine attribution requirements. I'd love to see some further guidance from OSI on this.
Edit: for example, it might become recommended practice to put generic, boilerplate, or non-innovative code under permissive FOSS licenses from day one, but leave extremely novel, innovative, or unique code under a more restrictive license (such as one with more stringent attribution requirements) in a separate module for a time, until credit for the innovation is well-established (after which even the innovation can be published under a permissive license). Not a panacea; simply an early thought.
Precisely my thoughts; either they're already violating the attribution requirements of such a license, or it's under Fair Use in which case the question is moot. There's no need to put them doubly into failure of compliance.
I'm not an attorney; I have worked professionally with IP policies and licenses for a number of years. I generally give the following suggestion to developers considering FOSS licenses: once you've put your code under an open license, assume that you no longer own today- you only own tomorrow.
What I mean by that is that once the source code is out there under a given open source license, it's best to consider it a total loss until the next time you change the code. Of course there's always the right to challenge and litigate, but this is often time-consuming, expensive, and an uphill battle. I can't even put a number on how many times I've dealt with teams who love the "warm fuzzy" of creating an open source project, but get apoplectic when they realize that means giving up quite a bit of control over anything published as FOSS (but it's a large quantity).
Having said all of that, I think OP is doing exactly the right thing in reconsidering the license. Maybe an OSI-approved FOSS license is not right for this project and a more restrictive license is appropriate, but personally I think that in the face of this new type of use case, most FOSS licenses should clarify and refine attribution requirements. I'd love to see some further guidance from OSI on this.
Edit: for example, it might become recommended practice to put generic, boilerplate, or non-innovative code under permissive FOSS licenses from day one, but leave extremely novel, innovative, or unique code under a more restrictive license (such as one with more stringent attribution requirements) in a separate module for a time, until credit for the innovation is well-established (after which even the innovation can be published under a permissive license). Not a panacea; simply an early thought.