Outline motivations for license requirement (#640)

- Add public domain dedication mention
- Add instructions for people unsure about licenses
- Add focus for private content

Reviewed-on: https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/Documentation/pulls/640
Reviewed-by: Bastian Greshake Tzovaras <gedankenstuecke@noreply.codeberg.org>
Reviewed-by: Robert Wolff <mahlzahn@posteo.de>
Reviewed-by: Gusted <gusted@noreply.codeberg.org>
This commit is contained in:
Panagiotis "Ivory" Vasilopoulos 2025-07-14 22:13:11 +02:00
parent 43af756a75
commit a26bb35eb6

View file

@ -72,18 +72,45 @@ More often than not, we also send patches to upstream projects; that way, we all
### Can I host software and resources without a free and open-source software license?
Our mission is to support the creation and development of Free Software; therefore we only allow repos licensed under an
OSI/FSF-approved license.
For more details see [Licensing article](/getting-started/licensing).
However, we sometimes tolerate repositories that aren't perfectly licensed and focus on spreading awareness of the topic
of improper FLOSS licensing and its issues.
Codeberg is run by a non-profit association with an explicit mission of advancing
the creation and development of free content and free and open-source software.
### Can I use private repositories for my project?
This mission is shared by Codeberg's contributors, donors and association members.
We, and our servers, work tirelessly to provide you with our free service.
However, there is one thing that we expect from you in return:
To contribute back to the ecosystem by attaching a suitable license to the works that
you put out in public, so as to let others reuse and adapt your works.
In many cases, yes, but please read on.
Our goal is to support Free Content, and we do not act as a private hosting for everyone!
However, if we see that you contribute to Free Software / Content and the ecosystem,
we allow **up to 100 MB of private content** for your convenience.
**If you are not sure which license to choose,**
our documentation has a [licensing article](/getting-started/licensing).
**If you do not care about copyrighting your works,** please consider using a public domain
declaration (e.g. [Unlicense](https://unlicense.org/),
[Creative Commons Zero](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
for multimedia assets),
or licenses of similar nature (e.g. [WTFPL](https://wtfpl.net),
[MIT No Attribution](https://opensource.org/license/mit-0)).
Using such licenses helps ensure that others can comfortably (re)use your works anyway.
**If you need private repositories for commercial projects** (e.g. because you represent a
company or are a developer that needs a space to host private freelance projects for your clients),
we would highly recommend that you take a look at [Forgejo](https://forgejo.org).
Forgejo is the Git hosting software that Codeberg runs.
It is free software and relatively very easy to self-host.
Codeberg does not offer private hosting services.
Sometimes, we do tolerate repositories that are not licensed optimally (e.g. due to
historic reasons dating back decades). If you believe that your project should be exempt,
[please send us a formal request](https://codeberg.org/Codeberg-e.V./requests).
#### How about private repositories?
In many cases, yes, we do allow them (under certain conditions)!
Our priority is to support the free content and free and open-source software ecosystems.
As such, we cannot invest time, hardware and resources to provide private hosting for everyone.
However, contributors to the aforementioned ecosystems can use **up to 100 MB of private content** at their own convenience.
Further exceptions are spelled out in our [Terms of Service](https://codeberg.org/codeberg/org/src/TermsOfUse.md#2-allowed-content-usage):
> Private repositories are only allowed for things required for FLOSS projects, like storing secrets, team-internal