[License-discuss] Can a contributor take back open source code ?

[Antoine Thomas]

Hello dear OSI members,

I have a "not easy" question: is it possible for a contributor to remove
his contributions (code, translations, ...) from an open source project?
And, if someone do that, is it possible for the project to continue to
maintain the previous version, thanks to the license? (I mean, before the
deletion)

What copyright tells about this kind of situation? Are there some
experience already? While it is easy to find blog articles, there is no
clear statement on OSI and FSF websites on this touchy topic.

A few articles:
- https://hackaday.com/2018/09/27/can-you-take-back-open-source-code/
-
https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-happens-if-you-try-to-take-your-code-out-of-linux/

It seems that it's not really possible, but I would like to be sure. Could
someone help me? In our case at PrestaShop, the project is distributed in
OSL. I am currently reading it again to check if there is a part about this
topic.

Best regards,

Antoine


[image: PrestaShop]
<https://www.prestashop.com/?utm_source=signature&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_campaign=emails-signatures>

Antoine Thomas aka ttoine

Developer Advocate

t: +33 (0)6 63 13 79 06

antoine.thomas at prestashop.com
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