• Standardization name: Mandatory GPLv3 Licensing for FLOSS Uzbekistan Projects
  • Start Date: 2025-10-28
  • RFC PR: floss-uz/standards#0016
  • STD Issue: N/A
  • Severity: MUST

Summary

This RFC mandates that all new projects initiated under the FLOSS Uzbekistan network MUST be released under the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (GPLv3). Furthermore, all existing projects currently maintained or formally endorsed by member communities MUST be relicensed under GPLv3. This non-permissive (or copyleft) licensing strategy is proposed to strengthen the local open-source ecosystem by ensuring code, including any future modifications, remains permanently open and available for the entire Uzbek community.

Motivation

The primary goal of FLOSS Uzbekistan is to cultivate a robust, shared technical infrastructure. Using permissive licenses (like MIT or Apache 2.0) allows companies to use and modify the code without contributing their improvements back to the community, effectively creating proprietary forks from public effort. This practice fragments the local ecosystem and siphons value away from the community.

Mandating the GPLv3, a strong copyleft license, ensures that all derivative works built upon the community's projects must also be shared under GPLv3. This legal mechanism compels contribution back to the public pool, guaranteeing that the intellectual effort invested by Uzbek developers collectively benefits the entire FLOSS Uzbekistan network, thereby accelerating the growth and maturity of the local open-source space.

I. Detailed design

All technology-specific communities (e.g., Rust, Haskell, NixOS communities) within FLOSS Uzbekistan MUST adhere to the following licensing mandates:

  • New Projects (MUST): Any new open-source project initiated or adopted by a member community after the effective date of this Standard MUST use the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (GPLv3).

  • Existing Projects (MUST): All currently existing projects maintained or officially endorsed by member communities MUST begin the process of relicensing under GPLv3. This process requires securing permission from all past and current copyright holders and MUST be completed within a maximum of twelve (12) months from the Standard's adoption date.

  • Documentation Requirement (MUST): The project's primary README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md files MUST prominently state that contributions are accepted only under the terms of the GPLv3.

  • License File (MUST): Every repository MUST include a copy of the LICENSE file containing the full text of the GPLv3.

II. Copyright and Enforcement

FLOSS Uzbekistan asserts and holds the full copyright for all software projects under its umbrella.

FLOSS Uzbekistan is committed to actively monitoring for violations of the GPLv3 terms. As the copyright holder, FLOSS Uzbekistan reserves the right to monitor and enforce the GPLv3 license to ensure that all recipients and distributors of the software comply with the reciprocal obligations of the license.

Enforcement efforts will be primarily focused on achieving compliance—requiring violators to publicly release the complete and corresponding source code for any distributed software based on or linked to FLOSS Uzbekistan projects.

III. Benefits of Non-Permissive (Copyleft) Licensing over Permissive Licensing

The adoption of a non-permissive license like GPLv3, as opposed to permissive licenses (like MIT, BSD, or Apache 2.0), provides substantial benefits for a community-driven ecosystem like FLOSS Uzbekistan:

  1. Guaranteed Freedom and Community Growth (The "Viral" Effect):

    • Permissive: Allows derived proprietary works. A local company can take a community library, improve it, and sell the improved version without sharing the source code, reducing the shared knowledge pool.

    • Non-Permissive (GPLv3): Requires any redistributed software that incorporates the original code (or derived code) to also be released under GPLv3. This powerful copyleft mechanism legally forces downstream developers, including commercial users, to contribute their improvements back to the public, ensuring the community always benefits from the work.

  2. Protection Against Fragmentation:

    • Permissive: Creates a risk of "forking" where a company takes the project and continues development privately, leaving the community project to stagnate.

    • Non-Permissive (GPLv3): Discourages the creation of proprietary forks because the forking entity knows they will be legally required to release their changes, promoting a single, robust codebase shared by all local stakeholders.

  3. Strengthening Open-Source Principles:

    • Permissive: Primarily benefits users and companies by granting maximal usage rights with minimal legal obligation.

    • Non-Permissive (GPLv3): Primarily benefits the developers and the community by ensuring that the fundamental open-source principles of access, study, modification, and redistribution are maintained for every user, permanently.

IV. Policy on Boarded External Projects

This section defines the policy for projects that were created outside the FLOSS Uzbekistan network but are later adopted or formally recognized by a member community.

  • License Retention (MUST): Any existing, previously released software project "boarded" (adopted or officially recognized) into the FLOSS Uzbekistan network MUST retain its Original License. The requirement to relicense to GPLv3 (as detailed in Section III) does not apply to projects with external historical licensing.

  • Maintaining the project under GPLv3 (MUST): All future contributions and maintenance work performed by FLOSS Uzbekistan members on a boarded project MUST be licensed under GPLv3, given that the original project is compatible with GPLv3.

  • New Components (MUST): Any substantial new module, library, or feature developed entirely from scratch by the FLOSS Uzbekistan community specifically for the boarded project MUST be licensed under GPLv3, provided this is legally compatible with the Original License. This must be clearly documented in a separate LICENSE file for that module.

  • Documentation Clarification (MUST): The README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md for boarded projects MUST clearly state the project's Original License and explicitly mention that the GPLv3 mandate for boarded projects does not apply.

Guide-level explanation

For all Maintainers:

  • Licensing is Mandatory: Every project you touch or create from now on MUST use the GPLv3 license.

  • The Power of Copyleft: When you write code under GPLv3, you guarantee that anyone who builds on your work — even a commercial company — MUST release their own source code. This ensures all improvements come back to our community.

  • Relicensing Existing Work: You need to contact everyone who ever made a code contribution to your project (no matter how small) and get their explicit, written permission to change the project's license to GPLv3. This step is non-negotiable for legal compliance. Start this process immediately.

Unresolved questions

  • What official FLOSS Uzbekistan resource will be provided to assist communities with the legal process of tracking down and obtaining relicensing consent from past contributors?

  • How will the council handle an existing project where relicensing is technically or legally impossible (e.g., a critical mass of contributors cannot be located or refuse consent)?

Future possibilities