Questions tagged [forking]
Use this tag for questions about creating either a private or competing version of an existing open project.
52
questions
65
votes
4answers
12k views
How does GitHub's “forking right” cope with an “All rights reserved” project?
The GitHub FAQ states (emphasis mine):
You're under no obligation to choose a license. It's your right not to
include one with your code or project, but please be aware of the
implications. ...
17
votes
2answers
951 views
When should I consider creating a private fork of a suitably licensed project for commercial use?
Suppose I am developing a commercial product, but one heavily based on open source software. Further suppose one of the open source projects I use has a permissive license (such as Apache 2).
At some ...
17
votes
1answer
2k 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 ...
16
votes
5answers
4k views
What can I do when a fork of my project is out-competing mine?
Suppose I'm working on a FLOSS project and someone forked it and the forked project seems to be moving faster than mine and gains more popularity than my original project (possibly because the people ...
16
votes
4answers
823 views
Forking repos to “back up” in case they are removed?
I am wondering if forking a repo of software I use in case the owner ever decides to remove it is a silly thing to do or whether it actually makes sense.
It seems like the repo could just disappear ...
16
votes
3answers
5k 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. ...
15
votes
2answers
289 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 ...
14
votes
4answers
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 ...
14
votes
3answers
3k views
Rules/Guidelines about forking a project vs. creating a new one?
After reading these lines:
make a new github project (not a fork).
merge in the original repository.
In this Answer, I was wondering if there are any rules or guidelines when to fork a ...
14
votes
1answer
410 views
How do Chromium and Chrome relate to each other?
Google Chrome and Chromium look very similar and seem related.
How exactly do Google Chrome and Chromium relate to each other, and why are they separate products?
14
votes
3answers
438 views
What does the 'right to fork' mean?
Sometimes in regards to open source/free software I read about a 'right to fork'. What does it mean? Why is it relevant? Does all open source support this right?
13
votes
3answers
1k views
Derivatives and Forks… Is there a difference?
The terms fork and derivative have really been bugging me as I always seem to imply that their different, but then in many ways the same. You hear the term fork many times on platforms such as Github, ...
12
votes
1answer
3k 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 ...
12
votes
1answer
654 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 ...
11
votes
3answers
405 views
What type(s) of licenses ensures that forks of my project will stay open source?
My knowledge of licensing is somewhat fuzzy, it's something I wish I would have looked into more when I got into making open source projects...
That being stated, are there licenses that will ensure ...
11
votes
2answers
420 views
Recourse for forks ignoring open source license on original code in App Store?
I used to contribute to a free iOS app on GitHub that was released under the Mozilla Public License Version 2.0.
Multiple people have since taken the code from that GitHub repository and released ...
11
votes
1answer
592 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'...
9
votes
1answer
184 views
Removing Ads from Open Source projects
My most recent encounter with WebYog's SqlYog revealed that the vendor has made their Community edition open source, and available on GitHub, however the product still has obtrusive ads in it.
It is ...
8
votes
2answers
179 views
Can I be charged for support from the original developers when I fork a project?
During development of ParrotBot, I've ran into many issues in terms of debugging, design and integration. In the chat room, I've received lots of support that has helped me greatly, so that I could ...
8
votes
2answers
226 views
When does a forked project require a license?
I haven't quite grasped the implications of forking a licensed project to public.
I am assuming that a similar license should be kept, but what happens if that's not possible?
Edit
I am providing ...
8
votes
2answers
252 views
Can the ability to fork override the copyright owner's desires?
Consider the following scenario
Project A is originally licensed under a permissive license
By the time it reaches version 6, it has built up a strong user base, many of those users producing closed ...
7
votes
2answers
273 views
How to store our own fork of a project to ensure pulling fixes and contributing back is as easy as possible
I work at a small company in a small IT department. We use Visual Studio Online (the Team Foundation Server flavor of VSO) to store our source code. We're interested in deploying an open source (GPL ...
7
votes
1answer
915 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
6k views
Differences between Firefox and IceCat?
From GNUzilla:
GNUzilla is the GNU version of the Mozilla suite, and GNU IceCat is the GNU version of the Firefox browser. Its main advantage is an ethical one: it is entirely free software. While ...
7
votes
2answers
640 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/...
6
votes
5answers
451 views
Preventing people from forking and profiting over minor changes
Twinone App Locker is an Android app. It used to be open-source, released under an Apache 2 License. It was ad-supported.
People forked it. If I understand correctly, they tended not to make any ...
6
votes
2answers
193 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
990 views
Differences between Firefox and Iceweasel
Iceweasel is a fork of Firefox which was made by the Debian project because the license conditions of the Firefox name and logo violate the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
Did Debian do any other ...
6
votes
1answer
346 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
63 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?
5
votes
1answer
1k 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 ...
5
votes
2answers
383 views
Can I add “third clause” to BSD-like license?
I forked a project which is licensed under “BSD-like” license. This goes as
the following:
Copyright © 20xx Author
CopyRight © 20xx Another author
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in ...
5
votes
1answer
57 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 ...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
If a project is forked and its license is changed, which license should be followed?
We have seen a lot of open source project on GitHub. But what would happen if someone fork a project and modify & improve from it? For example, if an original open source project creator states ...
4
votes
1answer
145 views
What are the best ways to get involved with open source projects? [closed]
I would like to know if someone could explain to me how to go about working on an open source project. I know that you can use git and other types of programs to commit code, but is there some sort of ...
4
votes
1answer
164 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
593 views
Where is csharp-sqlite now maintained?
csharp-sqlite is the only pure-C# implementation of an SQLite client.
The project used to live at https://code.google.com/p/csharp-sqlite
The last update was 4 years ago.
The homepage says:
For ...
3
votes
2answers
95 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
61 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"?
...
2
votes
2answers
259 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
108 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
1k 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")...
2
votes
1answer
32 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
61 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
370 views
Is it possible to get rich prosecuting GitHub users from a non-lincesed 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
130 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?
1
vote
2answers
85 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
198 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 ...
0
votes
2answers
178 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
64 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 ...
