Help with certification

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I started a Java project and want to host it to sourceforge. I got the site setup (https://sourceforge.net/projects/gregsbank/) but in order to upload files they need to be licensed in accordance with OSI. I’ve never done any kind of licensing as I’ve never shared my projects like this so I really have no idea what I’m doing. I also have to secure the app but as I’ve not even decided how to secure it I’ll have to wait until someone answers my thread on coderanch (http://www.coderanch.com/t/551431/Security/Want-create-Class-multiLevel-File). Thanks for any help whatsoever I really want to build this thing but I’ve never been good at legal stuff nor have I ever programmed something with secure IO before.

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Do you want to give away your source code? Do you care what people do with it? The answers to these questions will help determine which license is right for your project.

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Do you want to give away your source code? Do you care what people do with it? The answers to these questions will help determine which license is right for your project.

I thought SourceForge required Open Source but OSI is the Open Source Initiative so yes I do want it to be open source. Part of the idea in posting my project to sourceforge is that others can read my code and suggest improvements or if they want make their own version. I do of course want people to give me credit for my work (and I will give credit to those who help out). I also don’t want people creating a viral version and claiming it’s my project but I think those things are fairly obvious.

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SourceForge is a site for hosting open source projects (ditto for Google Code), so yes they will want you to use an accepted open source license. I usually use the Apache License 2.0; it is an attribution license. This means that if someone uses my code they have to note it somewhere (in the docs or on the About page or somewhere like that). Other than that they are free to use the code as they like.

Usually using an open source license requires two steps on your part. First, you have to identify the license. And letting Source Forge know which license you use is usually enough. But if you have a README file as part of your code, and you should, then you should mention the license there. Some people even provide a LICENSE.TXT file containing the license. The second step is that each source file should have a header comment with a copyright statement (you retain all copyrights) and some text that identifies the license. Most open source licenses provide a template that you can use for this. For example, see this: http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html#apply

Note also that most open source licenses don’t kick in until someone redistributes your code. In other words, someone can grab your code and use it within their own business, or for their own personal use, even within a publicly-available web site, without ever letting anyone know. It is not until they redistribute their app to someone else that they have to abide by the license. (Though the Affero GPL license is supposed to close that loophole. But then many businesses avoid the GPL like the plague. I know it gave our company lawyer fits a couple years back when I released some code under the GPL! Fortunately the lawyer was tech-savvy enough to know that I had no choice in the matter after I explained it to him.)

Also, I looked at your Code Ranch post. It is a little rambling with the question buried within a rambling second paragraph. Making the question a little more to the point and focused would help. Usually the more concrete the question, the more help you get. It might even be better if your suggested a possible algorithm, especially identifying the Java security classes and methods you would be using, and then asking if anyone code see any possible holes.

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In addition to Apache, another license that allows all use but requires attribution back to you, and which has been approved by OSI, is the BSD license (e.g., 3-clause version: http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause). If you want to restrict the types of uses that are permitted, you might need to shop around for a different license since these would not prevent someone from using your code in malware.

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Thanks. I’ve not had the chance (or at least felt like) going to the next phase yet. Unfortunately I’m stuck on my mom’s machine and I don’t get the right atmosphere (relatively quiet and nothing else pulling my attention) until night time after I need to have gone to bed so I can get up for work in the morning… Still I appreciate the help and will remember these when I get back to work on my project (hopefully soon, I’m in a moving process and think I may have more computer access once we’ve moved as well as possibly a server with which to centralize my data (so I can easily use multiple machines)).

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