User:AntiCompositeNumber/rtf

Should the bot policy require public, open-source code?

Should the bot policy include the following requirement that the source code for bots on the English Wikipedia be published under a free license?

Right to fork

All approved bots must make their source code publicly available under an Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved free software license, unless the Bot Approvals Group approves otherwise. Bot operators should also document basic installation and configuration steps needed to run a copy of the bot. If the source code for a bot is no longer available, incomplete, or out of date, community members may request an updated version from the bot operator. If there is no response from the bot operator after two weeks, a request for review of the bot's approval may be made to the BAG following § Appeals and reexamination of approvals.

If a bot operator feels that some or all of their bot's source code can not be made public for security or other reasons, they must request an exemption from the BAG during the bot's request for approval. The request must explain why source code can not be released, and may be declined by the BAG. Bot operators are encouraged to make as much of their bot's source code public as possible. Bot operators with non-public source code should identify co-maintainers who can continue to operate the bot in their absence.

This requirement does not apply retroactively to bot tasks approved before it was added to the bot policy, except as decided by the BAG. Existing bots seeking approval for new tasks will only be required to publish the source code necessary to carry out those tasks. This requirement does not apply to bots operating without approval.
— Adapted from wikitech:Help:Toolforge/Right to fork policy

The Wikipedia editing community is built around free software and the principles of free content. However, a significant number of edits come from automated programs, and many of these bots do not have freely-licensed and publicly-disclosed source code. That means that other editors do not have the freedom to use the software on their own, to study the code to better their own bots or protect the wiki from security problems, or to adapt the bot for other tasks or wikis. In this way, these bots are not fully serving the goals of Wikipedia.

This lack of source-code disclosure also presents a practical problem. When a bot operator leaves the project, their bot(s) will eventually also stop editing, either through lack of maintenance or deliberate action. Other community members can recreate the bot, but this task is made exponentially more difficult when the bot's source code is not public. This proposal aims to prevent that situation by requiring new bot tasks to have public source code.