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should i put a disclaimer in my repos? (feddit.it)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am making a Public repo for the first time. It's not mutch , just a script to setup a podman container. But i am afraid of people messing up their devices and blaming me 😅. Do you guys think i should put a disclaimer in the main page of the repo? If yes, what kind of disclaimer should i use? I've never really dived into the legal side of things.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think you should do more then just add a disclaimer. You should add a proper license. It protects you and allows others to build upon your work in a predictable way.

That and licenses are legally battle hardened and proven. A self written disclaimer is not.

I would recommend licensing your scripts under the GPL. This lets other people use it with the understanding that if they improve it they have to let others use the improvements too.

That and it protects you like you want. Particularly section 15 and 16.

Disclaimer of Warranty.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

Limitation of Liability.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Alternatively you could use the MIT or BSD licenses, but they don’t have the “share alike” clause, so I tend not to recommend them.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

While it feels a bit overkill for what is essentially 60 lines of bash, i think it's the best option. As you have already said, they have been thoroughly battle tested, so there shouldn't be any problems. So yes, most likely i'll go with this.

Thanks mate.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

You don't know if those 60 lines of bash are worth something to corporate america. Any code we write has value, how much value is rarely up to us.

A few months ago we had a guy playing a side project he did where he used a model to replace clothing on people so you could try something on and see how you looked. I begged him to add a license to his repo, and he still hasn't, because "it's just a bit of python". Like dude you don't see it but you just game Nordstrom or Macy's millions of dollars for free man! Guy didn't see it.

So yeah. Maybe it's just a helper script. Who cares. Adding the license is free and takes seconds, and who knows, maybe you solve a million dollar problem.