MIT vs GPL License

[chriswmackey]

@theo-armour ,

I have a few models that I can contribute but I just wanted to make sure that I understood the intention behind the choice of an MIT license for this repo. I have both models of existing historic buildings that I could imagine fitting nicely with the MIT license but I also some personal models of designs that have been fleshed-out over the course of architecture school with the aid of Ladybug, which I could imagine fitting well with the Ladybug-web capabilities but maybe not so well with the MIT license.

Everything else in Ladybug+Honeybee is GPL and this has put me at ease knowing that the code cannot be copied into a proprietary package that could restrict someone else's access to the capabilities. Having a GPL license here could also put me (and I imagine some others) at ease knowing that our designs won't be copied into a proprietary package.

If I am correct in understanding that this repo is really only for historic buildings and for designs for which we really don't care about the right to access, then I will just contribute the historic buildings. Otherwise, let me know your thoughts on a GPL license for this repo.

-Chris

[chriswmackey]

Ah, wait. I just realized that @mostaphaRoudsari contributed the MIT license. Let me know your thoughts, Mostapha. Also please feel free to answer, @theo-armour if you have thoughts on this.

[theo-armour]

@chriswmackey @mostaphaRoudsari

Good thoughts and a complex topic. It will take some thinking to work it all out.

The first thing is that these models are much more like 'content' then 'code'. So a Creative Commons license might be the way to go.

MIT and GPL protects the creator against being sued if the software does something nasty, but these are representations of structures - so the issues are more about copyright than about usage.

And there are multiple copyrights here - the copyright of the building design held by the architect and the copyright of the OBJ or JSON file as created by whoever. And if somebody makes a thumbnail then...

I will be adding text to the read me that begins to outline things. And I think we can record - model by model - what each contributor wants.

Sound OK?