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Community Bot
Community Bot
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A few thoughts:

1. Don't pretend this is the MIT license

Don't pretend you're using the MIT license when you're not. If you need a unique license for a unique situation then just use a unique license. While crayon licenses in general are a problem, I think that this the Stack Exchange network is a situation where a new ultra-basic license would be warranted. And I know you'll use your legal team to prevent the problems with other crayon licenses.

2. It would be best to make a new license

If the purpose of this change is to make it easy for post authors and easy for those who would use the code in those posts, then what you're doing won't help. I think it would probably be best to write a new license which is very basic and allows reuse as long as a URL of the post is attached to the borrowed code. If you want to have any user choices, then it should be between this and the existing CC BY-SA. It would also be possible to give users the option to do a CC0 type opt-in too, but the default must be attribution.

3. The license needs to be self contained.

You can't have the license, and then list exceptions to it in the terms of service, and then also require users to check a poster's profile to see whether the exception hasn't been opted out of. If you want to have two options, then just have two completely distinct licenses. Users also need to be able to see easily what the license of each post is...

4. Each post should show its applicable licenses

Each post should indicate below it what the relevant licenses are. If the user has selected only CC BY-SA or CC0 then it could show it. Old posts would show only CC BY-SA (unless perhaps their author edits them and ticks a box saying "update to the new SE-Attribution license"). Posts edited by multiple authors would show only the compatible licenses: new posts without any user opt-ins would be the same as if they only had one author, but if the user did opt-in to CC BY-SA only, then the posts would be only CC BY-SA.

5. Fix your footer "attribution required" link

It is against the terms of the CC BY-SA license to require specific attribution formatsagainst the terms of the CC BY-SA license to require specific attribution formats. It is dishonest and disingenuous to keep that link in the footer.

A few thoughts:

1. Don't pretend this is the MIT license

Don't pretend you're using the MIT license when you're not. If you need a unique license for a unique situation then just use a unique license. While crayon licenses in general are a problem, I think that this the Stack Exchange network is a situation where a new ultra-basic license would be warranted. And I know you'll use your legal team to prevent the problems with other crayon licenses.

2. It would be best to make a new license

If the purpose of this change is to make it easy for post authors and easy for those who would use the code in those posts, then what you're doing won't help. I think it would probably be best to write a new license which is very basic and allows reuse as long as a URL of the post is attached to the borrowed code. If you want to have any user choices, then it should be between this and the existing CC BY-SA. It would also be possible to give users the option to do a CC0 type opt-in too, but the default must be attribution.

3. The license needs to be self contained.

You can't have the license, and then list exceptions to it in the terms of service, and then also require users to check a poster's profile to see whether the exception hasn't been opted out of. If you want to have two options, then just have two completely distinct licenses. Users also need to be able to see easily what the license of each post is...

4. Each post should show its applicable licenses

Each post should indicate below it what the relevant licenses are. If the user has selected only CC BY-SA or CC0 then it could show it. Old posts would show only CC BY-SA (unless perhaps their author edits them and ticks a box saying "update to the new SE-Attribution license"). Posts edited by multiple authors would show only the compatible licenses: new posts without any user opt-ins would be the same as if they only had one author, but if the user did opt-in to CC BY-SA only, then the posts would be only CC BY-SA.

5. Fix your footer "attribution required" link

It is against the terms of the CC BY-SA license to require specific attribution formats. It is dishonest and disingenuous to keep that link in the footer.

A few thoughts:

1. Don't pretend this is the MIT license

Don't pretend you're using the MIT license when you're not. If you need a unique license for a unique situation then just use a unique license. While crayon licenses in general are a problem, I think that this the Stack Exchange network is a situation where a new ultra-basic license would be warranted. And I know you'll use your legal team to prevent the problems with other crayon licenses.

2. It would be best to make a new license

If the purpose of this change is to make it easy for post authors and easy for those who would use the code in those posts, then what you're doing won't help. I think it would probably be best to write a new license which is very basic and allows reuse as long as a URL of the post is attached to the borrowed code. If you want to have any user choices, then it should be between this and the existing CC BY-SA. It would also be possible to give users the option to do a CC0 type opt-in too, but the default must be attribution.

3. The license needs to be self contained.

You can't have the license, and then list exceptions to it in the terms of service, and then also require users to check a poster's profile to see whether the exception hasn't been opted out of. If you want to have two options, then just have two completely distinct licenses. Users also need to be able to see easily what the license of each post is...

4. Each post should show its applicable licenses

Each post should indicate below it what the relevant licenses are. If the user has selected only CC BY-SA or CC0 then it could show it. Old posts would show only CC BY-SA (unless perhaps their author edits them and ticks a box saying "update to the new SE-Attribution license"). Posts edited by multiple authors would show only the compatible licenses: new posts without any user opt-ins would be the same as if they only had one author, but if the user did opt-in to CC BY-SA only, then the posts would be only CC BY-SA.

5. Fix your footer "attribution required" link

It is against the terms of the CC BY-SA license to require specific attribution formats. It is dishonest and disingenuous to keep that link in the footer.

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curiousdannii
curiousdannii
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A few thoughts:

1. Don't pretend this is the MIT license

Don't pretend you're using the MIT license when you're not. If you need a unique license for a unique situation then just use a unique license. While crayon licenses in general are a problem, I think that this the Stack Exchange network is a situation where a new ultra-basic license would be warranted. And I know you'll use your legal team to prevent the problems with other crayon licenses.

2. It would be best to make a new license

If the purpose of this change is to make it easy for post authors and easy for those who would use the code in those posts, then what you're doing won't help. I think it would probably be best to write a new license which is very basic and allows reuse as long as a URL of the post is attached to the borrowed code. If you want to have any user choices, then it should be between this and the existing CC BY-SA. It would also be possible to give users the option to do a CC0 type opt-in too, but the default must be attribution.

3. The license needs to be self contained.

You can't have the license, and then list exceptions to it in the terms of service, and then also require users to check a poster's profile to see whether the exception hasn't been opted out of. If you want to have two options, then just have two completely distinct licenses. Users also need to be able to see easily what the license of each post is...

4. Each post should show its applicable licenses

Each post should indicate below it what the relevant licenses are. If the user has selected only CC BY-SA or CC0 then it could show it. Old posts would show only CC BY-SA (unless perhaps their author edits them and ticks a box saying "update to the new SE-Attribution license"). Posts edited by multiple authors would show only the compatible licenses: new posts without any user opt-ins would be the same as if they only had one author, but if the user did opt-in to CC BY-SA only, then the posts would be only CC BY-SA.

5. Fix your footer "attribution required" link

It is against the terms of the CC BY-SA license to require specific attribution formats. It is dishonest and disingenuous to keep that link in the footer.