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Adds a separate page on licensing on Codeberg

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Looking of course for feedback on this, as I am not an expert on this at
all. This does capture some of the questions I had when starting to look
into licensing.
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Michiel Appelman 2021-10-14 11:58:42 +02:00
parent da549f6a23
commit e9544af6df
3 changed files with 53 additions and 4 deletions
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We are hosted in Germany by netcup GmbH as well as on own hardware in a rented facility in Berlin, Germany.
## Is it allowed to host non-free software?
Our mission is to support the development and creation of Free Software, thus we only allow those repos licensed under an OSI/FSF-approved license.
Please do not use custom licenses, [they are usually a bad idea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_proliferation) and might result in legal uncertainty (can I really really use this project or might a terribly-written-license put me as a user in danger?).
However, we sometimes tolerate repositories that aren't perfectly licensed correctly and focus on spreading awareness on the topic of improper FLOSS licensing and it's issues.
Our mission is to support the development and creation of Free Software, thus we only allow those repos licensed under an OSI/FSF-approved license. For more details see [Licensing article](/getting-started/licensing).
## Can I host private repositories?
Codeberg is primarily intended for public and free content. However, as per our [Terms of Service](https://codeberg.org/codeberg/org/src/TermsOfUse.md#repositories-wikis-and-issue-trackers), "Private repositories may be used for example to store keychains in build systems and continuous integration tools, or as staging areas for pre-alpha tests within limited groups.". As usual, common sense applies, so you can also use it for note-taking or internal team communication, if the resource demand stays reasonable.

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---
eleventyNavigation:
key: LicensingOnCodeberg
title: Licensing on Codeberg
parent: GettingStarted
order: 70
---
Codeberg's mission is to support the development and creation of Free Software, thus we only allow those repos licensed under an OSI/FSF-approved license.
Software is considered [free software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) if it's users have the following four freedoms:
* The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
* The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
* The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
This page highlights some of the major topics to think about when licensing your code and aims to make it easy to choose one quickly. However, do make sure to dedicate more time to this if you have very specific goals in mind or expect a significant impact of your code.
## Copyleft
One of the main principles that's important to understand is *copyleft*. Very simply stated, copyleft is a way to make sure free software stays free. It is the rule that when redistributing the program, you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms. It is important to think about this concept as you choose a license to determine how you want your work to be used, because as stated by [the GNU guide](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html#Non-CopyleftedFreeSoftware):
> If a program is free but not copylefted, then some copies or modified versions may not be free at all. A software company can compile the program, with or without modifications, and distribute the executable file as a proprietary software product.
An example of one of the strongest copyleft licenses is the [GNU Affero General Public License](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html). It adds a requirement that even when a modified program is run on a server and lets other users communicate with it, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version.
The other end of the spectrum is dedicating the software to the public domain. *Not* specifying a license does not automatically mean that you've put it in the public domain. If that's what you want, specify for example [The Unlicense](https://unlicense.org/).
## Recommended Licenses
The [list of OSI-approved licenses](https://opensource.org/licenses) highlights a couple of popular licenses that are available for use on Codeberg, and similar to [Choosealicense.com](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/) this is a shortlist of Codeberg's recommendations sorted from highly protective to unconditional:
* [GNU Affero General Public License](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html)
* [GNU General Public License (GPL)](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html)
* [MIT license](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
* [The Unlicense](https://unlicense.org/)
For more licenses, more details and some considerations when using any of them, see the [GNU list of licenses](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html).
Please do not use custom licenses, [they are usually a bad idea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_proliferation) and might result in legal uncertainty (can I really really use this project or might a terribly-written-license put me as a user in danger?). However, we sometimes tolerate repositories that aren't perfectly licensed correctly and focus on spreading awareness on the topic of improper FLOSS licensing and it's issues.
## Non-code Licensing
For documentation, writing and other non-code assets a [Creative Commons (CC)](https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/) license can be used, but note that only the following CC licenses are considered free:
* [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
* [CC-BY](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
* [CC-BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Do not use [CC licenses on code](https://creativecommons.org/faq/#can-i-apply-a-creative-commons-license-to-software).

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Dependencies on commercial, external, or proprietary services for the operation of the platform are thus decidedly avoided, in order to guarantee independence and reliability.
[Read more at Codeberg's intial announcement](https://blog.codeberg.org/codebergorg-launched.html).
Read more at [Codeberg's intial announcement](https://blog.codeberg.org/codebergorg-launched.html) and the [Licensing article](/getting-started/licensing).
## Codeberg vs. Gitea