Re: [PLUG] Which license?

[Magnus <chrish@trilug.org>]

On Friday, July 18, 2003, at 06:12  AM, Kam Salisbury wrote:

> So, my question is, which license is more appropriate for something 
> that is
> just open source?

I would suggest limiting your choices to two or three selections.

If you want to cast the broadest possible net, you can use the BSD 
license.  The BSD license gives the most possible freedom to the 
licensee where they will be able to choose how to distribute derived 
works.

If you want to provide enduring openness of your code, even if that 
means commercial entities might shy away from it (not always the case 
these days though) you could consider the Gnu GPL.

Most of it boils down to what you want done with the derived works.

> I want to retain my rights to the scripts creative idea
> but whish others to maybe see it and say "Oh... so that is how you do 
> that."

Either of the licenses mentioned above will relinquish much of your 
control over the scripts, but still leave you with the copyright so you 
will continue to get credited with the original work.

> Well, hopefully anyway. I chose "free for non-commercial use" for now 
> since
> I do not really know the various differences between all the choices. 
> My
> guess is that the BSD license fits my needs but I am not so sure. If 
> someone
> were to include my idea-concept-code in another project I would 
> certainly
> desire the nod of recognition if not some payola if it matured into a
> commercial product.

None of the popular open source licenses will obligate the licensee to 
pay you for using your code.  Using a different license with the hopes 
that it will give you more control over derived works will likely shoot 
your creative works in the foot.

If you're really serious about this, and don't mind spending a little 
$$ up front to get the right answer, I suggest giving Don Rosenberg a 
call at Stromian Technologies.  He's one of the most authoritative 
sources on software licensing that you will find, and he is well versed 
on the multitude of OSI-approved licenses out there.

Don's web site is at http://www.stromian.com/

If you want Don's advice on the cheap, he has a book out on the subject 
as well:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764546600/

--

C. Magnus Hedemark
http://trilug.org/~chrish
PGP Key fingerprint = 984D 9A88 3D60 016F BE01 1506 60FB 85E1 9ABD 96F6

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