Reconcile the license to CC BY-NC 4.0 (owner decision)

The repo contradicted itself — package.json/CONTRIBUTING said MPL-2.0 (permits commercial use) while README/docs/LICENSE said Creative Commons NonCommercial (forbids it), with no root LICENSE. The owner chose Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International; this makes every surface agree. - Add a root LICENSE with the full official CC BY-NC 4.0 legal text plus a StepForge copyright header and SPDX identifier. Packages already ship it as the copyright file (verified in the built .deb). - package.json license -> CC-BY-NC-4.0; RPM spec License -> CC-BY-NC-4.0. - docs/LICENSE becomes a short pointer to the root LICENSE (no more competing paraphrase); README and CONTRIBUTING state CC BY-NC 4.0 (contributions licensed under the same license + DCO sign-off for provenance). - app:info now reports the license so the About view can't contradict. - New tests/unit/license.test.js guards consistency: root LICENSE present with the full legal text, package.json is CC-BY-NC-4.0, no shipping surface mentions MPL, and the story matches across README/CONTRIBUTING/docs/spec. Updated the RPM-spec packaging test accordingly. Note: the historical planning archives under ai_prompts/ still mention the old MPL target; they are point-in-time design notes, not the license, so they are left as-is. Verified: 289 unit tests pass; the built .deb ships the CC BY-NC 4.0 text as its copyright file. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
2026-07-04 14:17:42 -05:00
9 changed files with 508 additions and 13 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,426 @@
 StepForge
 Copyright (c) 2026 Tyler Westbrook
 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
 Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
 You are free to use, copy, modify, and share this software for
 NON-COMMERCIAL purposes, with attribution. You may NOT use it for
 commercial purposes without separate written permission from the
 copyright holder.
 License summary:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
 SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-NC-4.0
 The full legal text of the license follows.
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@@ -144,6 +144,10 @@ See [docs/ARCHITECTURE.md](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) for the repo layout.
 ## License
-Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 
+StepForge is licensed under the **Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0)**. See the root [LICENSE](LICENSE) for
 the full terms.
-Basically, do whatever you want with it just don't make money off it or sell it.
+In plain terms: you're free to use, modify, and share it for **non-commercial**
 purposes, with attribution — but you may not sell it or use it commercially
 without written permission from the copyright holder.
@@ -898,6 +898,7 @@ function setupIpc() {
    buildVersion: PACKAGE_JSON.buildVersion || app.getVersion(),
    dataDir: store.root,
    platform: process.platform,
    license: PACKAGE_JSON.license || 'CC-BY-NC-4.0',
  }));
  // Platform capture-capability profile (session type, portal/PipeWire,
  // xinput, click source, actionable messages) for the diagnostics UI, plus
@@ -23,8 +23,11 @@ guide-capture workflow patterns. To keep it legally clean:
 - Keep file formats (`.sfgz`, `.sfglt`, guide/step JSON) documented and
  versioned in `docs/` and `ARCHITECTURE.md`.
-Contributions are accepted under MPL-2.0 with a Developer Certificate of
+StepForge is licensed under **Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
-Origin sign-off (`git commit -s`).
+International (CC BY-NC 4.0)** — see the root [LICENSE](../LICENSE). By
 contributing you agree that your contributions are licensed under that same
 license, and you add a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off to each commit
 (`git commit -s`) to certify you have the right to submit them.
 ## Offline Rules
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
-Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
+StepForge is licensed under the Creative Commons
 Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
-Copyright (c) 2026 Tyler Westbrook
+The authoritative, full license text lives in the repository root:
-Permission is granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for non-commercial purposes only.
+    ../LICENSE
-You may not sell this software, sell modified versions of it, or use it as part of a commercial product or service without written permission from the copyright holder.
+Summary: you may use, copy, modify, and share this software for
 NON-COMMERCIAL purposes, with attribution. Commercial use requires
 separate written permission from the copyright holder (Tyler Westbrook).
-This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind.
+  Human-readable summary: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
  SPDX-License-Identifier:  CC-BY-NC-4.0
  Copyright (c) 2026 Tyler Westbrook
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  "description": "Local-first desktop tool for capturing, annotating, and exporting step-by-step guides, with an optional user-configured local AI integration.",
  "main": "app/main.js",
  "author": "StepForge [email protected]",
-  "license": "MPL-2.0",
+  "license": "CC-BY-NC-4.0",
  "private": true,
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=22.12.0"
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Version:        @VERSION@
 Release:        1%{?dist}
 Summary:        Local-first step-by-step guide capture and export tool
-License:        MPL-2.0
+License:        CC-BY-NC-4.0
 URL:            https://github.com/Twest2/StepForge
 # Runtime shared libraries (Chromium/Electron) + capture integration.
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
 'use strict';
 const test = require('node:test');
 const assert = require('node:assert/strict');
 const fs = require('node:fs');
 const path = require('node:path');
 const ROOT = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', '..');
 const read = (rel) => fs.readFileSync(path.join(ROOT, rel), 'utf8').replace(/\r\n/g, '\n');
 const exists = (rel) => fs.existsSync(path.join(ROOT, rel));
 // The license was a release blocker: package.json/spec said MPL-2.0 while the
 // README/docs said CC-BY-NC. The owner chose CC BY-NC 4.0. These guards keep
 // every surface consistent so it can never silently drift back to a
 // contradiction.
 test('a root LICENSE exists with the full CC BY-NC 4.0 text', () => {
  assert.ok(exists('LICENSE'), 'root LICENSE must exist');
  const license = read('LICENSE');
  assert.match(license, /Creative Commons/);
  assert.match(license, /Attribution-NonCommercial 4\.0 International/);
  assert.match(license, /SPDX-License-Identifier:\s*CC-BY-NC-4\.0/);
  // It must be the real legalcode, not a one-paragraph paraphrase.
  assert.ok(license.length > 8000, 'LICENSE should contain the full legal text');
  assert.match(license, /Section 1 -+ Definitions/);
 });
 test('package.json declares CC-BY-NC-4.0 and never MPL', () => {
  const pkg = JSON.parse(read('package.json'));
  assert.equal(pkg.license, 'CC-BY-NC-4.0');
 });
 test('no shipping license surface still claims MPL-2.0', () => {
  for (const rel of [
    'package.json',
    'README.md',
    'docs/LICENSE',
    'docs/CONTRIBUTING.md',
    'packaging/linux/fedora/stepforge.spec',
  ]) {
    assert.doesNotMatch(read(rel), /MPL-2\.0|Mozilla Public/i, `${rel} must not mention MPL`);
  }
 });
 test('the license story is consistent across the shipping surfaces', () => {
  assert.match(read('README.md'), /CC BY-NC 4\.0/);
  assert.match(read('docs/CONTRIBUTING.md'), /CC BY-NC 4\.0/);
  assert.match(read('docs/LICENSE'), /CC-BY-NC-4\.0/);
  assert.match(read('packaging/linux/fedora/stepforge.spec'), /^License:\s+CC-BY-NC-4\.0$/m);
 });
 test('the About info surface reports the license from package.json', () => {
  // main.js exposes license in app:info so the About view can never contradict.
  const main = read('app/main.js');
  assert.match(main, /license: PACKAGE_JSON\.license/);
 });
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ test('Fedora/dnf packaging files exist in their own separate locations', () => {
  }
 });
-test('the RPM spec declares runtime Requires, license, and MPL-2.0', () => {
+test('the RPM spec declares runtime Requires, license, and CC-BY-NC-4.0', () => {
  const spec = read('packaging/linux/fedora/stepforge.spec');
-  assert.match(spec, /^License:\s+MPL-2\.0$/m);
+  assert.match(spec, /^License:\s+CC-BY-NC-4\.0$/m);
  assert.match(spec, /^Requires:\s+nss$/m);
  assert.match(spec, /%license/);
  assert.match(spec, /chrome-sandbox/); // %post makes the sandbox helper setuid