If you fork a repository, submit a pull request that doesn’t change the license, do you still need a CLA?
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@assaf What if something doesn’t have a license and you fork and change it, doesn’t that violate copyright law?
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@stilkov @assaf without a license, forking, changing, and thus creating derived works thereof constitutes (c) infringement. In principle...
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@lukaseder @assaf That’s my understanding as well. Interesting that no-one seems to perceive this as a problem worthy of fixing.
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@stilkov @assaf Yes, I wish that GitHub had license management (and CLA) tools. But I guess, most people just don't care
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@lukaseder @stilkov but is the CLA necessary? repo has license X, I fork, modify (code, not license), submit PR. that's under license X, no?
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@assaf @lukaseder Sure, but what if the forked repo doesn’t have a license in the first place?
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@stilkov @lukaseder then whatever you do is unlicensed, use at your own risk. some people mistake public repo as public works/public domain
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Replying to @assaf
@assaf @lukaseder I’d say most people think that (which of course doesn’t make it right).

Mar 22, 2014 · 10:51 PM UTC

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Replying to @stilkov
@stilkov @assaf I think this could all be formalised very easily on @github: Default licenses to choose from, default CLAs to choose from.
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@lukaseder @stilkov there are default licenses to choose from when you create a new repository