Require projects to specify the license of their code

Bug #117276 reported by Matthew Paul Thomas
8
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Launchpad itself
Fix Released
Medium
Edwin Grubbs

Bug Description

When a project is registered, we should require the registrar to specify that all the project's code is licensed under OSI-approved licenses. This will:
* reduce (though by no means eliminate) dummy projects and non-software projects;
* help ensure that someone registering a project actually knows a thing or two about it;
* help ensure that people aren't registering proprietary projects without them or us realizing.

The interface for this should consist of a text field and a pair of radio buttons, something like:

This project:
(*) is all licensed under _OSI-approved licenses_
    Name the license or licenses used: [____________]
( ) includes code that is proprietary or licensed under non-OSI-approved licenses

These controls should come early in the registration form, so that people don't waste time filling out the rest of the information if the license field makes them realize they're in the wrong place.

Unresolved issues include:
* How should existing projects be handled? (Perhaps their registrars should be e-mailed, giving them a few months to declare their license or emigrate.)

Christian Reis (kiko)
Changed in launchpad:
assignee: nobody → salgado
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
description: updated
Steve Alexander (stevea)
Changed in launchpad:
assignee: salgado → statik
Elliot Murphy (statik)
Changed in launchpad:
assignee: statik → edwin-grubbs
Changed in launchpad:
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Edwin Grubbs (edwin-grubbs) wrote :

Should the page display an error if the user selects the radio button for non-OSI-approved licenses? If registering a project with a non-OSI-approved license is allowed, do we want to record which type of license it has?

Revision history for this message
Steve Alexander (stevea) wrote :

Here's some ideas:

 - The form should have a third option for "I don't know what licence the code has".
    Choosing this option takes you to a page explaining about registing projects in Launchpad
    and pointing you to other things you might want to do (such as request a CD or ask a question)

 - If the user says their project contains non-OSI licensed code, then they should be taken to a web form
   that asks them to write a description of their project, with URLs etc, and explains that we consider use of Launchpad
   by such non-OSI licensed projects on a case-by-case basis, and that someone from the Launchpad team will
   be in touch with them soon. The form sends us an email, including the user's Launchpad id.
   The project is not actually registered at this point.

Revision history for this message
Edwin Grubbs (edwin-grubbs) wrote :

This will require adding a field to the database to track the license, so it will not be released till 1.1.10.

Changed in launchpad:
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Changed in launchpad:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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