Today every developer is using others work. It's just near to impossible to avoid third party dependencies in your project. But there are not so much ways to support other developers. We need to find a solution which will help independent developers and in the same time would not harm the open source movement itself. And the result should be a technical solution not a conversation.
My proposal is to show a list of libraries we use in our web apps. For this I propose to transform useless copyright message into functional component.
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Preview
Motivation
- Funding-gate with implementation proto-advertisement network into
standardnpm package. - Libraries developers have less chances to receive funding than authors who use their work.
Specification
Convert copyright message like "©, Author, 2019" into group of links or buttons, where:
- "©" refers to about section with app dependencies
- "Author" refers to author's contact information
- "2019" refers to app's changelog.
About section
This section contains license information, list of used packages, application name and version.
Author section
This section doesn't require any particular structure.
Changelog section
Present valuable information into a web app about its' changes. Should hold list of versions with changes and links to commits.
Pros
- Usefulness. It brings new ways for developers to promote their work.
- Usability. It's a very simple way to figure out which libraries was used in implementation.
- Security. Everyone can figure out is it safe to use the app.
- Legal issues. We should provide information about used software in our products according to licenses.
- Ethics. It's just correct to share information about those who helped you.
Cons
No found yet.
Real life example
You can see it in action at Code-to-Image web app:
Top comments (4)
Shouldn’t it be “(C) ”
Where is the range of earliest copyright claim to latest.
A copyright claim needs a year. Although at this point I don’t see why as copyright is starting to last forever.
The mention format also confirms the generally used format in LICENSE and file headers.
Thank for suggestions. I will add copyright claims with date range into the about section. Copyright doesn't last forever. I suppose only the last date copyright claims should be displayed into the bar and a range into About screen.
The mention data should be provided by library author as JSON (maybe in package.json). It's better for automation and tooling than a free form license text files. But I haven't found a solution how to make it suitable for non-js libraries.
[Citation Needed]
Every time Mickey Mouse comes close they extend it in the US.
Copyright doesn't last forever without prolongation. But I think setting full range is excessive. Because most of modern products are complicated and consist of items with different terms. All of this details couldn't be presented in a single-line component. To be more informative it should lead user to a page with legal information. And About section is playing this role.