GitHub embraces the Unlicense
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Arto Bendiken
Jul 17, 2013, 11:52:22 AM7/17/13
to The Unlicense group
Friends,
Thanks to the efforts of githubbers Ben Lavender (@bhuga) and Phil
Haack (@haacked), GitHub users creating new repositories are now
offered "Public Domain (Unlicense)" as a licensing option in a
user-friendly license drop-down menu. Choosing this option will
automatically create an initial commit with a LICENSE file containing
the text of the Unlicense.
See the screenshot at [1], or, see the feature in action at [2]. (And
yes, the Unlicense is still the very last option in the drop-down
menu, but with alphabetical ordering that's a given, whether sorted by
'P' or 'U').
Also, the Unlicense is similarly featured on the new companion
ChooseALicense.com website launched by GitHub a couple of days ago [3,
4].
This is a significant milestone, and I predict this move will
significantly increase our adoption rate; which, incidentally, isn't
doing too shoddily in any case, with 1,000+ unlicensed projects
already on GitHub [5].
Still, the power of defaults can be witnessed using GitHub's real-time
code search, which shows that already 21 brand spanking new unlicensed
repositories have been created using this feature since it went live
on GitHub last night [6].
According to recent research, the majority of repositories on GitHub
contain no licensing information at all [7]. It seems that it is this
growing license-free [8] trend ("the kids these days!") that GitHub is
attempting to address through the roll-out of these features, and we
can only be thankful that they have enough of an eye towards the
future to have included the public domain as one default option
(unlike, say, Google Code, who expressly prohibit public domain code).
[1] https://twitter.com/theunlicense/status/357319194666209280/photo/1
[2] https://github.com/new
[3] http://choosealicense.com/licenses/
[4] http://choosealicense.com/licenses/public-domain/
[5] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense&type=Code&s=indexed
[6] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[7] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/github_licensing_study/
[8] http://ar.to/2010/12/licensing-and-unlicensing
--
Arto Bendiken | @bendiken | http://ar.to/
Thanks to the efforts of githubbers Ben Lavender (@bhuga) and Phil
Haack (@haacked), GitHub users creating new repositories are now
offered "Public Domain (Unlicense)" as a licensing option in a
user-friendly license drop-down menu. Choosing this option will
automatically create an initial commit with a LICENSE file containing
the text of the Unlicense.
See the screenshot at [1], or, see the feature in action at [2]. (And
yes, the Unlicense is still the very last option in the drop-down
menu, but with alphabetical ordering that's a given, whether sorted by
'P' or 'U').
Also, the Unlicense is similarly featured on the new companion
ChooseALicense.com website launched by GitHub a couple of days ago [3,
4].
This is a significant milestone, and I predict this move will
significantly increase our adoption rate; which, incidentally, isn't
doing too shoddily in any case, with 1,000+ unlicensed projects
already on GitHub [5].
Still, the power of defaults can be witnessed using GitHub's real-time
code search, which shows that already 21 brand spanking new unlicensed
repositories have been created using this feature since it went live
on GitHub last night [6].
According to recent research, the majority of repositories on GitHub
contain no licensing information at all [7]. It seems that it is this
growing license-free [8] trend ("the kids these days!") that GitHub is
attempting to address through the roll-out of these features, and we
can only be thankful that they have enough of an eye towards the
future to have included the public domain as one default option
(unlike, say, Google Code, who expressly prohibit public domain code).
[1] https://twitter.com/theunlicense/status/357319194666209280/photo/1
[2] https://github.com/new
[3] http://choosealicense.com/licenses/
[4] http://choosealicense.com/licenses/public-domain/
[5] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense&type=Code&s=indexed
[6] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[7] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/github_licensing_study/
[8] http://ar.to/2010/12/licensing-and-unlicensing
--
Arto Bendiken | @bendiken | http://ar.to/
Peter Saint-Andre
Jul 17, 2013, 12:49:21 PM7/17/13
to unli...@googlegroups.com
Arto Bendiken
Jul 18, 2013, 10:08:49 AM7/18/13
to The Unlicense group
On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Peter Saint-Andre <stp...@stpeter.im> wrote:
> Awesome!!
Indeed! And to follow up, the first-day analysis [1] is promising;
since the point in time that this went live on GitHub,
1. 58 new repositories using the Unlicense were created with this new
GitHub license-selector feature;
2. At least two authors of such new repositories also proceeded to
subsequently adopt the Unlicense in another previously-existing
repository of theirs (after presumably having learnt of it via this
feature);
3. Early adopters due to this new feature include the U.S. Department
of Labor [2] and the NOAA Emergency Response Division within the U.S.
Department of Commerce [3].
The second bullet illustrates a virtuous network effect that will aid
the adoption rate's growth further still. Other network effects that
will come into play, such as word of mouth and license discovery by
peer example, are somewhat more difficult to estimate or observe.
Now, using GitHub's real-time code search, I estimate the present
number of Unlicense-using repositories on GitHub to be about 1,500. If
this new adoption rate persists, the number of such repositories on
GitHub will double over the next 6 weeks or so. That's as contrasted
to the previous adoption rate that would have seen such an increase
over a span of 6-12 months.
Good times.
[1] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[2] https://github.com/USDepartmentofLabor
[3] https://github.com/NOAA-ORR-ERD
> Awesome!!
Indeed! And to follow up, the first-day analysis [1] is promising;
since the point in time that this went live on GitHub,
1. 58 new repositories using the Unlicense were created with this new
GitHub license-selector feature;
2. At least two authors of such new repositories also proceeded to
subsequently adopt the Unlicense in another previously-existing
repository of theirs (after presumably having learnt of it via this
feature);
3. Early adopters due to this new feature include the U.S. Department
of Labor [2] and the NOAA Emergency Response Division within the U.S.
Department of Commerce [3].
The second bullet illustrates a virtuous network effect that will aid
the adoption rate's growth further still. Other network effects that
will come into play, such as word of mouth and license discovery by
peer example, are somewhat more difficult to estimate or observe.
Now, using GitHub's real-time code search, I estimate the present
number of Unlicense-using repositories on GitHub to be about 1,500. If
this new adoption rate persists, the number of such repositories on
GitHub will double over the next 6 weeks or so. That's as contrasted
to the previous adoption rate that would have seen such an increase
over a span of 6-12 months.
Good times.
[1] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[2] https://github.com/USDepartmentofLabor
[3] https://github.com/NOAA-ORR-ERD
Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)
Jul 19, 2013, 8:41:13 PM7/19/13
to unli...@googlegroups.com
Congratulations. Well done, that's really an achivement!
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Vinay Gupta
Free Science and Engineering in the Global Public Interest
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Arto Bendiken
Aug 27, 2013, 6:20:43 PM8/27/13
to The Unlicense group, Ben Lavender, Zachary Voase, Peter Saint-Andre, Mike Gogulski
Friends,
On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 4:08 PM, Arto Bendiken <ar...@bendiken.net> wrote:
> Now, using GitHub's real-time code search, I estimate the present
> number of Unlicense-using repositories on GitHub to be about 1,500. If
> this new adoption rate persists, the number of such repositories on
> GitHub will double over the next 6 weeks or so. That's as contrasted
> to the previous adoption rate that would have seen such an increase
> over a span of 6-12 months.
I'm pleased to be able to follow up with the confirmation that this
prediction turned out to be pretty spot on. Some 5 weeks later, the
number of Unlicense-using repositories on GitHub has indeed at the
least doubled, now totaling at least 3,200+ by the simplest and
crudest available measures [1, 2].
In terms of featuring select projects in the project list at
Unlicense.org [3], we're past the point where it's feasible to
proactively keep up with new projects. Perhaps the list ought to in
due course be removed altogether?
Looking forward, if the present adoption rate (300+ new public domain
projects per week) should persist, we're looking at an additional
doubling of the user base by the next Public Domain Day (January 1st,
2014).
Strategically, the question of bootstrapping the public domain in the
software industry now reduces to how many more public domain projects
it will take to get another SQLite. Here's to hoping SQLite isn't a
black swan.
[1] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[2] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FUNLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[3] http://unlicense.org/#unlicensed-free-software
On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 4:08 PM, Arto Bendiken <ar...@bendiken.net> wrote:
> Now, using GitHub's real-time code search, I estimate the present
> number of Unlicense-using repositories on GitHub to be about 1,500. If
> this new adoption rate persists, the number of such repositories on
> GitHub will double over the next 6 weeks or so. That's as contrasted
> to the previous adoption rate that would have seen such an increase
> over a span of 6-12 months.
prediction turned out to be pretty spot on. Some 5 weeks later, the
number of Unlicense-using repositories on GitHub has indeed at the
least doubled, now totaling at least 3,200+ by the simplest and
crudest available measures [1, 2].
In terms of featuring select projects in the project list at
Unlicense.org [3], we're past the point where it's feasible to
proactively keep up with new projects. Perhaps the list ought to in
due course be removed altogether?
Looking forward, if the present adoption rate (300+ new public domain
projects per week) should persist, we're looking at an additional
doubling of the user base by the next Public Domain Day (January 1st,
2014).
Strategically, the question of bootstrapping the public domain in the
software industry now reduces to how many more public domain projects
it will take to get another SQLite. Here's to hoping SQLite isn't a
black swan.
[1] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[2] https://github.com/search?q=unlicense+path%3A%2FUNLICENSE&type=Code&s=indexed
[3] http://unlicense.org/#unlicensed-free-software
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