[retroforth] Copyright law and the public domain
- From: Charles Childers <charles.childers@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: RetroForth Mailing List <retroforth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 22:07:06 -0500
Over the last month, I've been reviewing copyright law in the USA. It
seems to be very complex in some cases, especially with regards to the
public domain.
The ultimate conclusion I came to was that (sadly), authors and
developers can't explicitly place their work into the public domain,
at least in the USA. Of course, I am not a lawyer, but I can't afford
to hire one either.
For this reason, I've begun to work on a statement that sort of covers
this, while still providing for free, unrestricted use and
modification. The text is drawn from the MIT/X11 License:
The authors of this software and/or documentation (the "Software")
would like to give their work to the public domain. In the event that
your country does not recognize this as valid, they also grant
permission, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this
Software to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Any thoughts or comments concerning this would be appreciated. My
intent is to make it clear that you may use, modify, and redistribute
Retro without any restrictions, even if your country does not
recognize the ability of an author to give up their copyright
protections.
--
Charles R. Childers
http://www.retroforth.org
Other related posts:
