Questions tagged [forking]
Use this tag for questions about creating either a private or competing version of an existing open project.
72
questions
18
votes
1
answer
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Why do some, but not all, 100% Free Software distros rebrand Firefox?
Some Linux distros, such as PureOS, ship Firefox with the official branding. Others ship a debranded fork of Firefox, such as Trisquel's Abrowser. PureOS and Trisquel are both FSF-approved Linux ...
8
votes
4
answers
2k
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Can someone other than the original author contribute downstream changes to an upstream repo?
Let's say we have repo A with a copyleft license like GPL. Let's say someone forks repo A to repo B and creates some modifications. Let's say the owner of B had no intention of contributing their ...
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3
votes
1
answer
124
views
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 rights as a contributor to the original repository on Github
There is a repository of code that I have made pull requests and added code to, and that code that I have contributed is in the master branch. The code is under the Creative Commons Attribution-...
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2
votes
1
answer
83
views
Term to describe an open-source fork that wishes to remain a fork
Is there a common way to describe an actively-maintained open-source fork that wants to remain a fork because it makes changes that don't align with the upstream maintainer's desires?
Example: Alice ...
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18
votes
3
answers
4k
views
When forking an open-source project, what should I do with the maintainers' emails included in the source code?
Let us assume that I am forking an open-source Python library, modifying it, and using it in another closed-source commercial project.
The license is Apache License 2.0 and I am including a copy of ...
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1
vote
1
answer
219
views
Are there any CI purified Firefox forks? [closed]
Are there any continuously integrated forks of Mozilla Firefox that only use the open source code?
If not, why?
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
95
views
Forking .NET library code (MIT license), how to treat individual file header?
I'm aware MIT license is permissive, I would still like to ask/verify how to proceed with forking code from .NET runtime libraries.
Reason to fork: in my specific case, code I'm interested in is ...
- 121
4
votes
2
answers
830
views
Ideal way to 'fork' github project but keep it as a standalone repo and not a fork/proper licensing and attribution
So here's the situation: I'm working on a project where I have very specific needs and tasks in mind: A tool I can schedule/automate to archive all/latest Twitch VODS, clips, including chat logs for ...
- 75
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
GitHub repository ownership when working for a company
In the context of academic research, a company holds a GitHub account.
Researchers come and go, and many create a repository related to their research project, using open-source licenses such as GPL3.
...
- 159
6
votes
1
answer
269
views
Copyright notices in a forked AGPL codebase
My workplace uses an open source project with an AGPL 3.0 license. It's been abandoned as far as I can tell – no commits for 5 years aside from a handful of contributed pull requests (the most recent ...
- 163
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How is the wow.js fork free, while the original project is not free?
I searched for a library to manage browser scrolling. I came upon https://wowjs.uk/.
If you look at the bottom, it says it's free, and on its GitHub page the license is MIT.
However, it's a project ...
- 151
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How do I deal with authorship after a fork?
I've forked the protpy package into propy3 in order to make it usable for Python 3 users. I'm not a user of that package myself and have no clue of protein computations. However, in order to make it ...
- 203
0
votes
1
answer
134
views
How to approach being blocked from a repository you use and contributed to?
What action(s) are recommended in such a situation?
Here are some actions I considered, but can't quite figure out if they're optimal/adequate to open source mentality:
Forking the repo. I fear I ...
- 125
2
votes
1
answer
162
views
Is commit author name stripping copyright infringement?
I'm the author of Fulguris which is in conflict with Styx. Both projects are MPL 2.0. Fulguris is a fork of the decade old Lightning and Styx is just a rebrand of Fulguris.
Styx completely destroyed ...
- 121
0
votes
2
answers
690
views
Are you allowed to create a GPL fork of an MIT/Apache licensed project?
Consider the Kerla kernel. It's dual-licensed under the Apache 2.0 and MIT licenses. If I were to create a fork of that, would I be allowed to change my fork's license to the GPL? Until today, I was ...
3
votes
1
answer
62
views
Can original author transfer rights for GPLv3 project to other person?
Let's have one guy who have been working on game and published it as GPL open source project.
After some time, community forks popped out, while original author got increasingly tired of his project ...
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3
votes
1
answer
253
views
Publish a heavily modified version of forked NPM package
I have forked and modified a legacy open-source NPM package for my personal use. And I thought publishing my modification might be useful for others.
The "heavily modified" in my case is:
...
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2
votes
1
answer
139
views
Am I allowed to squash commits in repository with Apache 2.0 license?
The repository of an open-source Apache 2.0 licensed project I'm forking is huge and has a giant commit history, so, for the sake of saving space, I want to just to squash all commits, preserving all ...
- 123
10
votes
1
answer
437
views
Forking / Cloning an active open source project
I am looking at an open source project that handles OData calls against APIs. I'm thinking that it would make a great starting point for a new library aimed at an industry-specific API that is closely ...
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3
votes
1
answer
201
views
Do software patches ever inherit the license of the patched project?
This is a follow up question to an earlier question which included a misunderstanding about the nature of the MIT/X license, and has been clarified there.
Consider the software project dwm by Suckless....
- 364
2
votes
2
answers
334
views
Original author splitting up and developing independent fork
I'm the original author of an Apache 2.0 licensed open source project. I'm considering splitting up from this project and continuing to develop my own fork.
Do I owe anything to the original authors ...
- 121
5
votes
1
answer
192
views
Can I change the license of a forked project from LGPLv3 to MIT?
I have forked a project with LGPLv3 license and I did there a lot of changes.
Can I distribute a new version under the MIT license?
Or only the possibility is to write the code from "scratch"?
...
- 153
3
votes
1
answer
199
views
MPL2.0 with Golang code - am I doing this right? Can I fork part of a library?
I am preparing to (formally) release my first standalone FOSS program (source and binary). It basically relies on Hashicorp's Vault's implementation of Shamir's Secret Sharing algorithm to provide ...
- 133
5
votes
1
answer
105
views
Licensing for forked projects
If a project is licensed with MIT license, can someone fork the project, create significant changes, and put a more restrictive license on it? Or even copyright it?
13
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Can I change the license of a forked project to the MIT if the license of the parent project has changed from the GPL to the MIT?
Some time ago I have forked a project on the GitHub that used the GNU GPL v3 license. So I also had to use the GPL license in my fork.
Recently, the author of the original project changed license to ...
14
votes
4
answers
11k
views
Is keeping the forking link on a true fork necessary? (Github/GPL)
This question is about a true fork (with new name, different features, different objectives and not targeting a pull request).
When I am developing a new application based on an other project I ...
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2
votes
1
answer
295
views
Can we re-format the text of a license after forking a repository?
Say I fork a project. I'd like to adjust the format of the license without actually changing its content. Is this allowed?
Specifically, the license does not contain line breaks in some cases. So ...
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14
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Authors and contributors of forked project
There is an NPM package on github geveloped by the company and licensed under MIT.
There is one author listed in package.json file of this package, and there is a company copyright in the license.
I'...
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8
votes
2
answers
886
views
Is ripping off an open source library okay?
I don't know if I'm over-reacting but a while ago, I'm using a library https://github.com/sudeepag/SAConfettiView and I saw an open ticket https://github.com/sudeepag/SAConfettiView/issues/57 and it ...
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2
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How can I correctly apply the Apache 2.0 licence to contributed code from an existing repository?
Given a repository github.com/x in github that is licenced with Apache 2.0. On their source files they have
Copyright [2019] [Evil Corp]
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License")...
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11
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Should I use my own license in a fork of another GitHub repository, which I've revamped completely?
Background
I am the owner of an open-source theme for Hugo named hugo-dream-plus which, as the name implies, is an upgraded version of hugo-theme-dream.
Note that hugo-theme-dream is licensed ...
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6
votes
2
answers
293
views
How to track upstream using Git when forking a project?
There is an open source project that I'd like to fork for various reasons. The upstream project uses SVN for source code management, but they maintain a read-only Git mirror on GitHub.
I want to take ...
- 267
4
votes
1
answer
382
views
Forking a GPL 2 Project on GitHub
I recently forked a project on GitHub. After doing a significant amount of work on the fork I was wondering how to proceed with spinning it off into an independent project. The reason I ask is because ...
- 41
2
votes
1
answer
282
views
Fork maintain and distribute a MIT project
Given a project which is under MIT, has been archived, can it be forked, restarted the dev and be redistributed/renamed?
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0
votes
1
answer
226
views
What are the libraries Blender is based on for mesh visualization and editing? [closed]
I'd like to make a software on Python with a GUI for 3D visual editing of meshes. That's why I ask the question. I suppose at least one mesh editing library is used. And at least one 3d visualization ...
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7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Etiquette around forks & npm
What is the etiquette around forking and NPM?
Consider the following sequence of events:
There is an existing open source project published on GitHub (or similar) under some standard permissive ...
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4
votes
2
answers
450
views
Term or phrase for a 'soft fork'?
I've made some changes to an open source project but I haven't (yet) been able to get those changes merged into the upstream project source control repo.
I'd like to publish my fork of the project ...
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21
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Forking GitHub repository (MIT): what references to the original author should remain intact?
I'll pick one of the most popular React boilerplates as an example here.
Assume I've forked it (the commits history till the fork date remains intact). According to the text of MIT license, the only ...
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-1
votes
2
answers
245
views
Why boilerplates are created from scratch, not forked?
I've checked couple dozens popular boilerplates (react, react-native, nodejs) and neither of them are forks from other boilerplates.
Am i missing something? why are people writing them from scratch ...
- 379
7
votes
1
answer
504
views
How should I continue work on an abandoned open source project?
I've found an open source project (MIT-licensed) that I really loved the idea and the project code base itself, however it seems to be abandoned and people are doing their own forks from it.
I did ...
- 179
1
vote
0
answers
796
views
What happens if I do not add a license to my open source project on Github? [duplicate]
I just received a notification about the following issue from a project I contributed in the past: Can it be a open source project? (Since the source code is already open, I think the title should be ...
- 243
1
vote
1
answer
939
views
Is it possible to get rich prosecuting GitHub users of an unlicensed fork?
On the thread Half of GitHub Code Unsafe To Use (If You Want Open Source) you can find a recipe to getting rich:
Post it on Github
Make everyone think it's free to use.
Sue everyone you can ...
- 275
-1
votes
1
answer
92
views
GitHub source to npm js module set author correctly
I use Arboreal library in my new project, I am made some changes and now working to change it to npm module and use Grunt, because it not available from npm.
But I have a problem, when I start ...
- 109
0
votes
1
answer
559
views
Create a new git repository which includes part of an existing one?
The git repository for an existing open source library looks something like this:
A/ B/ C/
D/ E.txt F.txt
I need to create a new repository for a new ...
- 171
7
votes
2
answers
944
views
How to structure git repository for a new project based on an existing one?
I am looking to write a new open source library (at github.com/me/my_lib, say). Rather than starting from scratch I would like to begin with a copy of the code from an existing project (github.com/...
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25
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to deal with licences after forking a project?
I forked a project with an MIT license on GitHub:
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2012 Some Name
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software ...
- 353
2
votes
1
answer
85
views
Licensing derivative work of forked code base
What I have done
There's PHP tool which uses Bitbucket API to deploy code on environments without Git etc. It's licensed under GPLv2 or any later.
Bitbucket API is shifting from v1 to v2, and it's ...
- 121
15
votes
2
answers
363
views
Starting (not forking) a new project based on a seemingly dead one
I recently forked a small github project to work on an open issue regarding the program's execution speed. I've achieved a substantial speedup, and I'm ready to submit a pull request.
However, the ...
- 251
1
vote
2
answers
148
views
Creating a new repository based on an old one
I would like to fork a repository on GitHub (let's call this A) so that I can modify a few things. If I were to try and make a pull request, I don't think it would be merged as they changed the focus ...
- 121
19
votes
3
answers
10k
views
Common practice on GitHub and license/copyright
I have been searching the web for quite some time now, but the plethora of opinions/comments/articles about licensing questions make it difficult to verify how trustworthy the various sources are. ...
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