SSH-MitM 2.0.0 – Licence change to GPLv3 | Hacker News Reader

SSH-MitM 2.0.0 – Licence change to GPLv3

github.com

18 pointspaulsen768 comments

According to the commit log this is the license the repo was created with in 2020[0] title should be "SSH-MitM in no way changes its license". Just a point fishing attempt? The latest commit does seem to be undoing a customized wording of the GPLv3 from Dec/2020[1]

[0]: https://github.com/ssh-mitm/ssh-mitm/commit/f4263d19211f080f... [1]: https://github.com/ssh-mitm/ssh-mitm/commit/6db7208c50b3d7e0...

The “customized wording” you’re seeing is “The LGPL”. It’s a different license from the GPL.

The history on the repo shows that the original license was GPL (June 2020), the author changed the license to LGPL (December 2022), and now they’re changing it to GPL again. https://github.com/ssh-mitm/ssh-mitm/commits/master/LICENSE

The switch to LGPL was 13 Dec 2020.

Good catch, that’s a typo on my part (especially given that Dec 2022 hasn’t happened yet)

Why does this matter?

Because projects which are using LGPL can be included in proprietary applications. Those application must not provide the source.

With GPL you can only include the application in other open source software.

This makes a big difference.

Perhaps the developer wants to avoid that the software is included in commercial software. This is one of the main reasons using GPL over LGPL.

Old version which are licensed under LGPL can be still used, but they wont receive updates.

Most developers are switching to a proprietary license to make money. If you have used LGPL code and you need an update to the latest version, you gave to buy a license.

So switching from LGPL to GPL is a good thing for an open source project.

It could also be an attempt to prevent security software from gaining a reputation of being misused. A LGPL license is basically pardoning malware authors by looking away and encouraging them.

I can't imagine malware authors being excessively concerned about their malware being non-compliant with open source licenses.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com