Zlib License FAQ pls :)

SDL Development
1

“Zlib License” cool, but sometimes questions arise to which I would like to see clear answers

  1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
    claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
    in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
    appreciated but is not required.

Okey, if someone people fork “SDL3” for experiments and rename project to “MyToyProjectForMyHomeExperiments” how this people need notice about “you must not claim that you wrote the original software”? Just write in docs “This project based on SDL3” ? That’s all? Or need other public notice? Best way for this case?

  1. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
    misrepresented as being the original software.

Okey, just make public notice in docs or/and license info “SDL3 Source code modified in this project” That’s all? Best way for this case?

  1. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

Everything is clear. No questions

Yeah maybe it stupid questions :smiley:
But I haven’t seen clear answers to them anywhere.
Let’s say a person forks a project and renames it, simply because that’s what he wants and that’s all. Then he plays with the code and makes a lot of breaking useless changes just by playing with the code. How and where should he notify others, following the license rules, that his project is based on another project and the code of another project has been changed?

This is the only thing he has to do (besides specifying the license text), but how can he do it beautifully, clearly, correctly.

Or can a person make a notification that the project is based on another and that the original source code has been changed in any way convenient for this user?
The main thing is that this is done, but how he will do it is not important?

I understand how to answer my own questions, but I would like to hear other answers. One head it’s good, but two better. Maybe I’ll hear from you something I haven’t thought about =)

2

You have gotten 40 views on this post so far, so there is a good amount of interest in the topic. I don’t want you to think you’re being ignored by the community.

It is very much common practice to fork the project on github, and edit the description and README.md to clearly state that it is a modified version. Most of those projects do not get a lot of attention, but it provides a clear path if you wish to contribute changes to the main project.

Common practice does not strictly translate to legal practice, but it does give you a general idea of how this project treats it’s forks. As long as what you do with that fork is not malicious, I think the team is more focused on improving their own product than they are worried about people making homebrews of the same.

I think the main reason that nobody has responded to you yet is that there is only one person who has clear copyright to the project, we don’t want to step on their role or tarnish their property.
We see Sam Lantinga (Slouken) in the forums from time to time, so you might grab their attention here, but it would be best to send a private message to politely ask how to proceed.

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