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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Why on earth would the license use Github’s very niche definition? “Forking” as a software concept has been around for decades longer than Github or it’s “fork” button has existed.

    Also, how about reading the full psragraph?

    You may not create, maintain, or distribute a forked version of the software.

    (emphasis mine). It only does what you think it does if forking = copying. Which it doesn’t.

    Question to you: Github provides a button labeled “Download ZIP” for downloading a .zip-file containing the source. If I press that button, am I in your opinion creating a fork?





  • I got it from the TOS:

    By setting your repositories to be viewed publicly, you agree to allow others to view and “fork” your repositories (this means that others may make their own copies of Content from your repositories in repositories they control).

    They explicitly define it as making copies. There is no mention of being allowed to modify said copy. Also note the quotes around “fork”, since it differs from the usual definition.

    E.g. wikpedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(software_development) defines it thusly:

    In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software.

    (Emphasis mine)





  • I feel most people are fundamentally misunderstanding what forking means.

    Generally, forking means making a copy and modifying it.

    Github, however, seems to define “fork” as just making a copy.

    So, in fact there is no “TOS violation”. The license forbids making a copy and modifying it, while github requires that you allow making copies. There is no conflict between the two.

    Even if it were, just having a license that contradicts the github TOS is not a TOS violation (unless that is separately mentioned somewhere).