I need License Guidance
I'm trying to find an appropriate license for my code, which I plan to release in the public domain to the public. This one seems perfect:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
But I don't think it is intended as a license for code. I am inexperienced in this area and could use some guidance, any advice is appreciated. I did manage to find a text version:
But I don't think this is suitable for code either, at least in comparison to many of the other popular licenses I have seen for code.
Am I second-guessing myself?
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
But I don't think it is intended as a license for code. I am inexperienced in this area and could use some guidance, any advice is appreciated. I did manage to find a text version:
| This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. |
Am I second-guessing myself?
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NB: I'm not trained in legal matters and what I say here should not be taken as legal advice.
Public domain has a specific meaning; works whose intellectual property rights have expired, been forfeited, or are inapplicable. So if you say that your work is public domain you give up all rights the control anything about it.
It may be worth saying what you want to do (or others to do) and not do with your code.
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html
| L B wrote: |
|---|
| I'm trying to find an appropriate license for my code, which I plan to release in the public domain. |
It may be worth saying what you want to do (or others to do) and not do with your code.
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html
Last edited on
closed account (3hM2Nwbp)
| what I say here should not be taken as legal advice. |
I cannot find a single thread regarding licensing in any programming based forum that does not have this disclaimer. Do lawyers even exist that can give definitive legal advice regarding software licensing?
Here's my one half cent on the topic: After your code gets out, there's realistically nothing that your license can do to prevent someone from copying your work near verbatim and re-licensing it under whatever they want to. Be sure that you can accept that as a possible consequence before releasing your work to the public.
Licensing is enforced only in reaction to legal suits. Lawyers are typically only involved when a company is deciding whether or not to use a piece of code or when someone sues.
Personally, I like the Boost License.
http://www.boost.org/users/license.html
http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt
The Boost people were very interested in making sure they had a good, defensible license that protected the copyright holders but made the code as freely available as possible otherwise.
IANAL is a common prefix because in today's society everyone needs to protect themselves, and dealing with code is a high-stakes issue in the industry. Unless you actually are a lawyer who is getting paid to sort this stuff out, you really don't want to touch it with a bazillion foot-long pole.
Of course, that leaves the poor individual software writers in a quandry. The major existing licenses have been nominally tested in court, so your choices boil down to, from best to worst: hire a lawyer to write one for you, use an existing one, and try to write one yourself.
Good luck!
Personally, I like the Boost License.
http://www.boost.org/users/license.html
http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt
The Boost people were very interested in making sure they had a good, defensible license that protected the copyright holders but made the code as freely available as possible otherwise.
IANAL is a common prefix because in today's society everyone needs to protect themselves, and dealing with code is a high-stakes issue in the industry. Unless you actually are a lawyer who is getting paid to sort this stuff out, you really don't want to touch it with a bazillion foot-long pole.
Of course, that leaves the poor individual software writers in a quandry. The major existing licenses have been nominally tested in court, so your choices boil down to, from best to worst: hire a lawyer to write one for you, use an existing one, and try to write one yourself.
Good luck!
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