I forked a repo some time ago and created a few pull requests which went unanswered.
Now, the software is MIT-licensed, and I kept the copyright notice there.
Do I have to rename the software, or whoever forks a repo can keep referring to it by the same name?
Thanks!
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From the comments:
if you create a fork that uses the same original codebase but diverges in another direction that competes with the original project, even if legally speaking the license doesn’t require you to do that, ethically speaking you should change the name of the software.
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Forking a git repo is not the same necessarily as forking a project for release.
The rules around naming and code reuse are more a matter of that projects particular licence. In git, a fork just means you have a copy of their code in your own remote repository, it says nothing about the licensing or how/if you can release your own version of the project.
We use forks at work – each developer works off a fork of the main repo. Has nothing to do with releasing different versions. It just keeps the main repo clean, and avoids the need to setup rules about who can push to which branches, because each developer owns their own remote copy.
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