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0 pointsteddyh4mo ago0 comments

> Most licenses require that forks change the name

I was under the impression that the opposite was the case; that requiring a name change was extremely rare, but some historically important free software packages had it (one such being LaTeX, IIRC), so it was, somewhat grudgingly, considered acceptable. But no normal licenses (like BSD, GPL, Apache, etc.) requires name changes today, AFAIK.

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wahnfrieden4mo ago

I was mistaken. GPLv3 only offers a provision to require it. Firefox also requires that the name be treated as a protected trademark. I don't know how clearly one gains rights to names of open sourced projects with typical trademark policy though. I've tended to change the name on my own forks if I am not forking just to contribute upstream, out of caution for trademark (even if unregistered) and general reputational hazards of becoming a public face for someone else's project under their chosen name.

edit: Looks like the reality is quite complex: https://google.github.io/opencasebook/trademarks/#license-te... this goes into detail on each popular license

teddyhOP4mo ago

> GPLv3 only offers a provision to require it.

IIRC, this was inserted into GPLv3 precisely so that older software with that requirement, but otherwise under a permissive license, could be relicensed into GPLv3 if necessary.

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