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Ask HN: How long does open-source project approval take at your company?
6 points by riyakhanna1983 on Jan 24, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 8 comments
How long does it take for your company to approve the use of an open-source software (e.g., maven artifact, GitHub project) and why?



An eternity because of the stigma that comes with confusing the old "free speech" not "free beer" argument and people attempting to defend their IP fruitlessly.

Meanwhile, I visited China on business. CEO of a very profitable startup explained to me that the lack of IP laws and copyright has actually caused a boom in open source culture. They know that if they release something, their product will be shared and adapted anyhow, so why not just ship a product that's essentially unlocked to begin with.


Instant. I suspect that the form submission backend detects certain licenses/usage criteria and automatically approves it.


Does it also check the quality of the OSS being imported (e.g., how many issues are open, how many active users, etc.)?


No. That's a decision for the team/user. I assumed the question was about legal approval.


12-ish person dev team: CTO has a filter on copyleft licenses for projects intended for distribution. And I don't blame him.

I've been warning the other new people since I've been asked. I'm also new-ish.


Couple of weeks, usually legal and technical reviews.


Depends. One extremely popular tool with an open source license took 1.5 years.


Approximately zero seconds.




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