Heya. I'm in the process of releasing an app I wrote to the public, and I'm looking for a good license to put on it. I don't wish to reserve any rights whatsoever, and I don't really care if people want to claim it as their own.
What I DO want is to ensure that no one can get in to any form of legal trouble by copying and using my program. I'd also prefer if no one was able to get ME into any legal trouble either.
Do I distribute it without any license and hope anonymity solves my problems, or do I GPL it?
I just took a quick look on GPL, and I believe it's too restrictive...
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Anonymous2007-01-08 9:10
BSD Licence.
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Anonymous2007-01-08 9:14
Do I distribute it without any license and hope anonymity solves my problems
Just explicitly release it into the public domain.
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Anonymous2007-01-08 20:47
you don't need to use an 'official' license. just make a text file explaining what you want to let people do with your code, and what you don't want to let people do with your code, and call it LICENSE.TXT
if you don't wish to reserve any rights whatsoever, that's what Public Domain is for.
"This is released into the public domain. No warranty is given - if it breaks you get to keep both pieces."
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Anonymous2007-01-09 12:16
public domain > MIT > BSD > *
I must disagree with public domain. As stupid as this sounds, you can be liable for public domain code, at least in the US. It's one of the reasons all the licenses include liability disclaimers.
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Anonymous2007-01-09 14:45
>>13
US is really a stupid country if you can be liable for public domain code, most european countries wouldn't tolerate that. And BSD > MIT BTW, HTH.
nm, figured it out. Someone had deleted most of my posts :)
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Anonymous2007-01-09 19:27
>>1
Public domain: Simplest and least restrictive license. You allow people to do anything.
BSD: Honourable version of public domain where you retain credits.
GPL: Viral, more restrictive free open source license that forces stuff derived from your work to be GPL too, and prevents others from profiting from your work. I like BSD better because it's less restrictive. However, the new beta GPLv3 has clauses against digital AIDS (digital restrictions management/DRM, treacherous computing/TC) and abusive software patents (American shit), so I like it the best.
So I recommend GPLv3 draft 2 or something like that.
>>14,18
Liability is distinct from copyright -- if you write a chunk of code and claim (or reasonably imply) that it won't damage anything, you'd still be liable for any damage whether that code is public domain or not. If someone else takes this public domain code and claims (or reasonably implies) that it won't damage anything, then /they'd/ be liable (unless they could reasonably shift the blame back to you for misleading them).
Since people are stupid, it's generally safer to explicitly state that the software is provided as-is, and there are no guarantees as to safety or suitability when you release something, whether public domain or not.
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Anonymous2007-01-10 1:16
Since people are stupid, it's generally safer to explicitly state...
This is a bad fix to the problem. The good solution would be to leave your stupid country where stupid people can sue you because you claimed in your code that it would solve world hunger and hemoroids.
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Anonymous2007-01-10 5:57
Yes, it depends on country. In US you can get sued if your code breaks ( if you don't state that it can happen, or something like that ) ! Also in US you can _not_ place your work in public domain ( ya rly ) !
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Anonymous2007-01-10 17:10
>>21 Also in US you can _not_ place your work in public domain ( ya rly ) !
Holy retarded country, Batman! How can that be so? What if you come here to /prog and throw some code with a message "Here's my shit, do whatever you want with it you faggots lol"?
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Anonymous2007-01-10 17:21
>>22
Isn't it obvious he's making crap up? In the country that started the creative commons license, I doubt putting stuff in public domain is a problem. All you need is a little readme text that says "This "blank" is released as public domain as is. No warranties expressed or implied". Not to mention stuff from the government is released as public domain all the time because it was paid for by tax dollars.
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Anonymous2007-01-10 18:00
I like public domain because I don't have to include a license blurb in legalese. also, I'm in the eu so no us faggotry mentioned in this thread would apply. bsd-style or mit/expat permissive licenses are great too. gpl usually just shows people have little clue and have been feeding on too much of rms' propaganda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain#United_States_law After 1988, an author's copyright in a work begins when it is fixed in a tangible form; neither publication nor registration is required, and a lack of a copyright notice does not place the work into the public domain.
I remember a discussion in some mailing list about this topic, the conclusion was that you can't place a work in the public domain, because it would allow anyone to publish anything without any consequences. No one is responsible for a public domain work. Government is something entirely different.
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Anonymous2007-01-11 4:36
>>24
Agree, BSD/MIT are nice. But GPL is useful too, I would definitely consider it for serious projects. Are you OK with your life long work being used in evil corporations patented closed source application ?
>>28
Well, you are responsible for what you say. If you could put work in public domain then you wouldn't be. Agree ? So if you write that you are going to kill the president, then you are responsible for that, but if you put that note in public domain then you aren't.
>>17
"and prevents others from profiting from your work"
It doesn't. It prevents them from changing your work without releasing the source. So if e.g. you write something and trhey improve it and sell it, they need to release the source to anyone they've sold it to. They also can't prevent the people they sold it to from giving it away or selling it themselves.
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