phpbb v mybb liscense

[gonzalo h]

know this has been asked a zilliion times but the gentleman who goes by aboyd https://theadminzone.com/threads/phpbb-vs-mybb.51088/ he said something along the lines where mybb has no gpl or bsd and phpbb does and that you are "locked in with mybb" what does he mean? honestly i like mybb better than phpbb i am almost done with my site (decided the niche) should i use phpbb though or even simple machines? the problem is since i started most of my site on mybb how will i convert formats.

 

[mysiteguy]

MyBB GPL license: https://mybb.com/about/license/

 

[TrixieTang]

know this has been asked a zilliion times but the gentleman who goes by aboyd https://theadminzone.com/threads/phpbb-vs-mybb.51088/ he said something along the lines where mybb has no gpl or bsd and phpbb does and that you are "locked in with mybb" what does he mean? honestly i like mybb better than phpbb i am almost done with my site (decided the niche) should i use phpbb though or even simple machines? the problem is since i started most of my site on mybb how will i convert formats.

Aboyd was referring to forking the software.

MyBB also isn't GPL or BSD licensed, however. You need to be careful. If they ever get "too big for their britches," well, tough. They own the code, so you have to walk. In particular, this clause in their license:

The MyBB Group also reserve the right to revoke redistribution rights of MyBB from any corporation or entity for any specified reason.

...Means that if they don't want you to fork their code, you ain't forking their code. In light of the recent PunBB/FluxBB fork, preventing forks seems like a pretty dangerous level of lock-in. Having said that, for a non-GPL & non-BSD license, it's otherwise pretty good. I think I like it.

Having grown tired of phpBB, I'm currently looking for a new home for about 50 mods I've built. I'm considering FluxBB, MyBB, Phorum, and Vanilla. At this point, I just don't know which community is most friendly to developers and customers. MyBB is the most feature-rich, though. That's for certain.

Unless you were planning on forking the MyBB software, this really isn't something you should be worrying about.

 

[Hogarth]

Aboyd was referring to forking the software.



Unless you were planning on forking the MyBB software, this really isn't something you should be worrying about.

Seems like I need to read up on the GPL a bit because I was under the impression anything licensed under the GPL is forkable.
Are there any known MyBB forks out there or are they stopped before they really turn into anything?

 

[TrixieTang]

Seems like I need to read up on the GPL a bit because I was under the impression anything licensed under the GPL is forkable.
Are there any known MyBB forks out there or are they stopped before they really turn into anything?

Now that you mention it, I just realized that that post was from 2008 - before MyBB switched from their own license to the GPL.

It's not even relevant anymore.

 

[Hogarth]

before MyBB switched from their own license to the GPL

That would make sense haha. I've never even heard of any forks for MyBB being in there and that's why I didn't really question it all that much.