Re: License (Was: Re: sony cooperation)

On Fri, Dec 27, 2002 at 02:34:57PM -0500, Marc Britten wrote:
> Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> >The LGPG does not prevent Sony from taking it and using it in any of their
> >products. 
> I didn't say that it did, what I ment was that they couldn't take it, 
> fix it up and use THAT, the LGPL mandates that changes made to the core 
> library much be published, but you can link to the LGPL source w/out 
> tainting your project.

Well, you were vague enough to make both interpretations possible.  What you
say above is certainly correct.
 
> >software license.  BSD does not give you any protection.  LGPL is 
> >inbetween:
> >It can be used, but modifed versions of the library itself need to be free.
> 
> some argue that protections make it less free, which is why i offered up 
> the LGPL, from what I understand it's compatible w/ all licenses in 
> terms of using our stuff, but makes sure our project gets any benificial 
> changes.
> 
> this way front-ends and any other libs someone makes can be licensed in 
> any way they choose.

The LGPL will be a fine free software license if you and the other authors
agree with it.  So are other options.  I don't have any discussion of
advantages or disadvantages of individual licenses in mind here.  However,
I am very serious about license agreements, so I can not even look at your
code until it gets a free software license.  This is because I am writing
a lot of free software, and anything I see that is not free might taint the
other software I write, even if no actual copying ever happens.

I am interesting in helping out with NetMD access under free operating
systems, and the quickest way to get there is to be able to build on your
work.  Free and legal access to the software and documentation you wrote is
a precondition for that.

Please add a license to the project, ideally to every file (that's what some
lawyers recommend to do), but I guess a single file with the license would
be better than nothing.  I guess you will want some form of agreement from
the other authors.  You can't start early enough to worry about copyright on
the software in your project. [1]

Thanks,
Marcus

[1] If you are interested in more info, some material from Georg is here:
http://france.fsfeurope.org/news/article2002-07-11-01.en.html
and here:
http://gnuhh.org/work/presentations/LSM-2002/index.html


-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    [email protected]
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
[email protected]
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/