How to open-source a project whose git repository has copyrighted media in the history?
- by phyzome
I want to release an audio fingerprinting software project under a free license, but the repository contains copyrighted audio files. The test cases also currently use these files. How do I release the code to the public with maximum version history but without violating copyright?
Details:
The code is versioned under git. We will collapse it all back into one branch before release.
There are 400 MB of audio data. Some files are free-licensed music from e.g. Jamendo, others are MP3s from our personal collections.
No matter what approach we take, we'll always keep an immutable copy of the original repo, so as not to destroy project history.
Main question: How to handle the public release?
Expunge all history of the files in question from the git repository and release the altered repo. (v64 pointed out a way to do this.)
Alternatively, take a snapshot of the current state of the code and don't even bother having a public history of the pre-release code.
Side question: How could we have avoided this dilemma in the first place, given that sometimes private code or media is needed for the early stages of a project?
