this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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"Inspired" is not an honest term. You're using someone else's code, so abide by the license they use, or remove their code from your project until you're ready to follow the license. You started lifting Postmill's code several years ago now and have had sooo much time to set things right but keep dragging your feet.
This isn't a school project, you're gaining financially from someone else's hard work without abiding by their (incredibly permissive) FOSS license and opening yourself up to serious legal action.
As I said, the markdown implementation that received the main thing has been rewritten by contributors. I need to consult on how it should look in such a case. Now the indicated similarities are between these files (these files will also be changed soon, before release):
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/src/branch/develop/src/Repository/Criteria.php
https://gitlab.com/postmill/Postmill/-/blob/1e98b99bc4a20b396f2fa4089bdb1a308b7e18fd/src/SubmissionFinder/Criteria.php
https://gitlab.com/postmill/Postmill/-/blob/a9704316c1c78f15ca12c2dc5ad477f4ac9f530e/src/Entity/Submission.php#L21-57
May I ask why you haven't added the copyright notice to make kbin compliant while your volunteers are in the process of eliminating all of Postmill's code from the code base?
I think several factors contributed to this. First, I prepared the licensing tag, but when the time came to merge the branch - that code simply no longer existed. As you can see, the remaining files are what I call inspiration - it's not copied code but more of an overall concept, quite common in these types of applications (however, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a tag). Another factor is that sometimes you have to choose what to focus on first - eliminate and remove thousands of spambots, fix activitypub communication after updates from other software so as not to crash your server and others, secure the instance from sensitive content, deal with all the formalities related to the legal situation, working on moteration tools, handle pull requests from people who dedicate their private time to it and many more. Additional, I still need to make sure I can pay my own bills, and there's personal life.
And yes, two months is a long time, but for me, it was just a flash this time. A swift reality check occurred because the first release was supposed to come out over a month ago. I'm doing this the best I can, and without the help of contributors, none of this would have been possible. Due to the situation, I have to prioritize certain tasks. This is still marked as high priority, but it's waiting its turn. Nevertheless, I have the opportunity, I decided to seek external help to do it the right way before releasing the first version. I realized that it only seems like a simple task on the surface. I want close the matter once and for all. All of this also pertains to the licensing tags of Pixelfed, btw.
Gosh, how long did it take you to type that long reply explaining you're too busy to copy a license file over to kbin? It takes less than a minute to do. Copy the file. Commit. That's it.
It took me from 4 to 6 minutes, I can't determine exactly. I think this is about more than just copying and committing a file - one needs to label specific files or sections of the code. I'm not sure how exactly this should look, so I'm waiting for a consultation.
Sending a tinsy-winsy appreciation to how you handle this dialog. Smooth. 🎩
People sitting on their ass telling others what they should do because "it only takes a minute" is such a stereotype in FOSS that I didn't think I would see a real one in the wild. Wow.
Yeah while I can understand why OP would be grumpy, their replies are coming off pretty poorly
What action do you think OP should be taking? Legal action? I don't see how criticizing OP for "sitting on their ass" is really a fair criticism.
OP should have been standing when telling others what to do. It takes only a second, and it's better for their figure. Stand up, commit. That's it.
You realize this is one human being managing this whole situation without getting paid? Being nice enough to share a cool, if imperfect, piece of software for all to use. Show some respect, damn. Kbin has exploded in the the past months, leading to a lot of exposure and thus also suddenly an onslaught of things to fix. License errors definitely aren't great, but you can't fix everything at once.
This is a fair ask imo if the borrowed code is used currently.
Most of the indicated code is no longer part of kbin (unlike Pixelfed's code, to be fair). You can see the similarities in the links provided above. However, I need to thoroughly analyze everything once again to make sure nothing slipped past me and there isn't more of it. There might be a tool that could facilitate this. In any case, it's not my intention to hide the original source, even if major changes have been made. I'd gladly leave information about what the code was based on. I have no problem with that, the only enemy is time.
At the end of the day, I wanted to thank you for that reminder. Sometimes I really need it. For now, these two PRs will have to suffice. I'm sure I modeled them after Postmill. I can promise I'll get back to this and do it right.
Thank you for that, Adam.
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/1005
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/1006