175 points

Ok, I might be misunderstanding here, but since committing changes is allowed for everyone, doesn’t this mean fixing bugs is something you could do? You’d just be stuck with all the other rights as well until someone else makes a change.

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89 points
*

The main dev made the last commit, so they dont have the right to make another commit, until they arent the last person to make a commit anymore (until someone else has made a commit). This makes sure that there are at least 2 people making commits but hopefully much more.

In other words, making a commit revokes your right to do so until someone else makes a commit.

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87 points

Am I just bad at reading? It says the right to make changes is granted to everyone one Earth. That would include the last person to make a commit as well, assuming they’re a citizen of Earth. I’m sure what you’re saying is what it’s supposed to say, but it isn’t actually what it says.

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39 points

All rights reserved by…, except the right to commit to this repository.

Being a legal license it requires much more rigorous and clear statement

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-2 points

All rights reserved by…, except the right to commit to this repository.

Being a legal license it requires much more rigorous and clear statement

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That may be what they meant, but that’s not what it says.

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1 point

The fact that you have 38 upvotes with such an incorrect statement is mind boggling.

This is how politics works I supposed. Write something that sounds plausible but is completely incorrect, inaccurate or completely fabricated and stupid people applaud and follow.

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1 point
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Its ok to be unable to read, but dont make that other peoples problem.

https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-licenses/blob/master/hot-potato-license

This is copied from V2 but same thing:

All rights reserved by the last person to commit a change to this repository,

No explanation needed

except for the right to commit changes to this repository,

Also no explanation needed

which is hereby granted to all inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy for the purpose of committing changes to this repository.

This refers to the previous section meaning everyone can make commits to the repository except for the person excluded by that same section

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30 points

the fact that there are this many people having different interpretations shows that the license would need waaaaaay clearer wording to hold any sort of water.

this is why i hate licenses like WTFPL and its ilk, just saying “do whatever” cannot possibly be legally viable and thus using anything with such a license is impossible by anyone who cares about copyright law (such as say, companies).

If you want your creations to be free for all to use, just slap a fat CC0 on it.

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11 points

Yeah, the problem with the proposition is that you have all rights and access to the code regardless of who made the last commit, unless the last person to commit revoked the HPL.

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3 points

The last person cannot revoke the right to make commits.

I have no idea what that implies about the right to change the license.

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105 points

But in a moment of legal discovery, it was found that “GitLab Support Bot” always owns the repository since it creates the merge commit after CI runs.

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21 points
  1. The bot is not a person and this cannot have the rights
  2. Just don’t use something as fancy as that. CI for a HLP project? Wth are you doing, there aren’t even tests
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10 points

You don’t have to be a person to have the rights of a person. That’s what a corporation is.

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5 points

But the license mentions all of earths citizens. Corpos can’t be citizens, right? Legal terms are confusing.

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64 points

“It’s not my code” “It is now!”

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56 points

This is how I handle code at work, almost. Program not working? Who has the last commit on the code? You get the question!

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54 points

Way to discriminate against future people on Mars.

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6 points

The Musk followers? Good.

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