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Is there a way to do GPL anymore?

1 points by bubblegumcrisis ↗ HN
I have a side project I've worked on for a few years. It's pretty neat. It's in the realm of AI research. I would like to open it up and tell people about it- see if anyone else would like to contribute.

But I can't figure out how.

In the past, I could make it GPL - the amount of work I've put in is a lot actually - a human would need many months to replicate it, even if they knew exactly what it did - and much was grueling. But now, some jerk can just feed in my code and ask for an equivalent code base.

I mean, they probably wouldn't even be touching the generated code - all that detailed work becomes somebody else's "concept."

Has anyone dealt with this?

5 comments

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cpburns2009
That's always been a possibility, even before the advent of LLMs. It was just harder to hide before. I think you should ask: what good is the project if you don't release it other than self-satisfaction? Sometimes just making something without releasing it is good enough (that's me in many cases). But since this is research in frontier field, I think it would be worthwhile publishing. Have you considered a less restrictive license like Apache 2.0 or MIT? Another possibility, depending on the nature of the project, is ensure the output of the project is not GPL while the project it self can GPL (like the GCC compiler). Or to put it another way which would bother you more: Spending years on research and never releasing it? Or some a-hole using your research without proper attribution?
bubblegumcrisis
I don't mind an a-hole using the research. I wouldn't even mind if someone used it without attribution.

It's that I want to be given back things they do as well. I want them to contribute back.

This project does something, and it's pretty neat. If someone takes the project and has another clever idea on what to do next, I want to see it. I want them to reciprocate.

Dunno- maybe this doesn't make sense.

cpburns2009
It does make sense. All I can say is if you don't release it, you eliminate any possibility of collaboration. But if you do release it, don't expect immediate collaboration. Whether a project gains interest is largely up to luck.
the_hoser
The license never protected your code. Lawyers did, if you could afford them. It's no different today, it's just harder to prosecute.

If your worry about people copying your code is preventing you from sharing, then open source and free software might not be for you.

bubblegumcrisis
It's slightly different. Obviously- else there would never have been GPL to begin with- I suppose.

I wouldn't mind if people used the code, etc. It's that I want to be given back. That's the trade off. Not paid, free code, must give back. You piggyback and find this other thing, then I want to see it too.