Re: License (Was: Re: sony cooperation)

On Fri, Dec 27, 2002 at 04:39:51PM -0500, Marc Britten wrote:
> Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> 
> >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.
> 
> any source w/out an explicit license statement is considered in the 
> public domain by legal types.

This is wrong.  Since the Bern convention and its ratification in just about
every country in the world (with maybe the exception of Sealand ;) any work
(no matter if software or not) that is copyrightable, but doesn't come with
any license, is by default to be considered under the most restrictive
terms:  All rights reserved.  That means that strictly nobody is legally
allowed to download, read, copy or use it without the explicit permission of
the author (or copyright holder).

Under the Bern convention, if you want something you created to be in the
Public Domain, you have to explicitely state so.

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`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/