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Is it generally, to a reasonable developer, considered morally acceptable, to take a branch of an open-source repository, and start making changes to it and calling your own? You would be taking this to another open-source.

Assume that you will link to the original. Note that this is a question of what is considered acceptable, not what is legal.

If this is okay, where is the line of how much you change that allows you to call it your own?

Eliza Wilson
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    And another good dup target: [if I fork an open source project and make improvements...](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/222362/if-i-fork-an-open-source-project-and-make-improvements-in-the-fork-will-it-or-i) –  Mar 14 '14 at 03:05

1 Answers1

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This is a process known as 'forking' and is so acceptable, GitHub has a button for it.

So yes, feel free to fork at will. One thing to remember: If you fix bugs/add new things in your fork, submit them to the original project.

SomeKittens
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    Regarding "calling it your own", you may want to look at the specifics of the particular license that applies. Some open source licenses (and developers) are very particular about appropriate credit. For the most part, what's acceptable and what's legal are pretty similar. – Michael Shaw Mar 14 '14 at 04:47