The Cadex OS - A free Unix-like OS

[mrosdev]

Ok. I've decided to abandon and delete this project.

[mrosdev]

you dare to claim my text editor is your inspiration?

Sorry, but I don't know how to use the word `inspiration' correctly.

[iansjack]

So, what should I do now?

You should give credit where credit is due.

Otherwise, hire a good lawyer.

[mrosdev]

So, what should I do now?

You should give credit where credit is due.

Otherwise, hire a good lawyer.

I'm only 12 and I don't know about these things. I just made this OS as a hobby project. I don't remember which parts are written by and which was written by the basekernel developers.

[mrosdev]

Please delete this topic, I don't want any further discussions. CadexOS is now permanently deleted from GitHub, GitLab, and my PC. except for the forked repositories.

[iansjack]

I'm only 12 and I don't know about these things.

Well, if that's true I apologize for being so harsh. But being told once that you are playing fast and loose with copyright should have been enough. You are perfectly free to use the GPLed code that you did, but you must not remove coyright notices from it and you must not claim copyright on files that you have copied unchanged. Read the Licence that came with the code you copied; it explains what you must do. I don't wish to discourage you from pursuing OS development, just from claiming credit where credit is not due to you.

BTW - at your age you shouldn't really be a member of these forums (COPPA).

[mrosdev]

I'm only 12 and I don't know about these things.

BTW - at your age you shouldn't really be a member of these forums (COPPA).

Sorry for that, but I just needed some help that's why.

[mrosdev]

you must not remove coyright notices from it and you must not claim copyright on files that you have copied unchanged.

I'll change the license header in files that I didn't edit back to the original ones.

[klange]

Sorry for that, but I just needed some help that's why.

Unfortunately, I'm obligated to remove your user account because of this, but I'd like to reply to some things first so you can read them later.

I'll change the license header in files that I didn't edit back to the original ones.

You need to keep the copyright and license information for all files you use, even if (especially if) you didn't modify them.

I'm going to provide a quick explanation of one of these licenses, the one I use for my OS - it's really quite simple, much easier to understand than the multiple pages of the GPL that you have chosen to use for your project.

University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License

This is the title of the license. This makes it easily identifiable to people who know its terms without having to actually read the terms.

Copyright (c) 2011-2019 K Lange, et al. (hereafter [fullname]). All rights reserved.

This is the copyright notice and notes who owns the copyright - that would be me, "et al." means "and others" - that means there are other people who share in this copyright. You can find that list here and usually at the top of individual files the specific authors will be listed.

Developed by: ToaruOS (hereafter [project])

This license is intended for organizations like universities, so it has an extra line for naming the organization. Here I've just referred to the collective group of people by the name of the project.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
(the "Software"), to deal with the Software without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:

This is where the interesting parts happen. International copyright law says that by default you have no right whatsoever to use copyrighted works, and since at least the 1980s it's been accepted that all works created by anyone are automatically under copyright by them without them having to do something about it. So our license grants permission to others to use the work, without paying any money. The important points here are that you are permitted to use, modify, publish, and sublicense! That means you can make changes to the code and release it under a different, compatible license - like the GPL! But these permissions are only granted to you under certain conditions, which are:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimers.

When you distribute the source code, for example by putting it on github, you need to keep the copyright information. If you took a single file that didn't have the notice on it, you need to add it somewhere and note which files it applies to. You also need this license and all of its conditions!

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

When you build and publish binary forms of the source code, such as a live CD that includes the built source code, you need to also include this license and the copyright information. If you've ever looked around on your phone or some other electronic devices, there's usually either a screen or a page in the manual that says it comes with code based on various sources and has many licenses listed. The GPL recommends that you include copyright and license information with a command or option flag.

* Neither the names of [fullname], [project] nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
this Software without specific prior written permission.

This may sound paradoxical given the conditions before it, but this just means you can't suggest that the original copyright owners - eg. me - endorse your derivative work.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
CONTRIBUTORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS WITH
THE SOFTWARE.

This big capitalized text is pretty standard boilerplate. Your use of my code comes with no guarantees from me that it will work or do anything useful for you. Since we didn't specifically enter into a sales contract between each other, you can't sue me if my code makes your computer explode, and if someone else claims that my code violates a patent of theirs and they go after you for using it, you also can't sue me for that.

Terms like these are very common in what we call liberal licenses. They make it very easy to comply and allow you to use the source code for basically anything, which is why you'll find them even in closed-source commercial products.

[mrosdev]

klange, ok. Now I understand what to do. You can now delete this account. But I'm very sad that I accidentally deleted my project.

[mrosdev]

The GPL recommends that you include copyright and license information with a command or option flag.

Do I need to make a command that shows the copyright info about the project?
The GPL "recommends" that you include copyright and license information with a command or option flag, so it's not necessary to do that, isn't it?

[nullplan]

The GPL "recommends" that you include copyright and license information with a command or option flag, so it's not necessary to do that, isn't it?

Not necessary, no, but it is necessary to provide the copyright and licence info along in any source code distribution, and to include it in any binary distribution as well, though for the latter, inclusion in documentation is enough. Also, the GPL requires that you provide the source code to any of your customers that ask. For a work that is public on github, that is not a big problem, but you keep that in mind for future projects.

[mrosdev]

nullplan, thanks.