[retroforth] Re: Copyright law and the public domain
- From: Helmar Wodtke <helmwo@xxxxxx>
- To: retroforth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 18:24:40 +0100
retroforth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx schrieb am 21.01.06 04:58:17:
>
> On 1/20/06, aprice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <aprice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > I would suggest that the GPL is well understood and now has court tests
> > behind it. Another possibility is a Creative Commons licence
> > http://creativecommons.org/.
>
> I have a dislike of the GPL (and LGPL) in that they require that the
> derivatives be distributed under the same license. This for me at
> least, is a restriction that I've tried to avoid in the programs I
> release as open-source.
Yes. At my opinion: GPL really does not meet the needs of a FORTH system. LGPL
is not very useful too.
> The Creative Commons licenses aren't intended to apply to software.
> They do have a "wrapper" for the GPL v2 though.
>
> > Both are probably better than excerpting bits from something else. In both
> > cases you could probably hope to be supported by the EFF or CC should you
> > run into problems.
> >
> > :)
>
> This is a good point. The other option I've been considering is using
> the straightforward BSD or MIT/X11 License. This could be a better
> choice in the long run, but I'm not sure...
It's better to take the raw BSD/MIT license. People that are interested in
licensenses know what a BSD/MIT license is. I do think that the MIT licensense
looks better in source code :)
> I don't forsee any major problems. In actuality, I've had about a
> dozen people inquiring as to what they are allowed to do with Retro.
> It seems that the "public domain" as a whole is poorly defined in
> today's world.
That's right :( I had to change to MIT-license with my HelFORTH since it
reflects best what is required by *german* law. Even if I want I could not give
much more rights than that which are expressed in MIT. If I dont give a license
in Germany, customers always have to ask me before doing anything - which
would be annoying for me too...
-Helmar
> --
> Charles R. Childers
> http://www.retroforth.org
>
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