Re: expert advice on publishing software needed

On Tue, 2 Nov 2004, Jochen Gläser wrote:
> 1) Am I allowed to put the files with the macros on the book publisher's
> website for free download, or can Microsoft object?
Microsoft cannot object at all, unless you used some code or library 
copyrighted by them (or others). I would say that a more compelling 
problem is the status of the code as related to the book, as in some 
cases it may be considered "part of" the book, and thus release rights 
are usually with the publisher. If the publisher is happy with that, 
nothing else can stop you making the code public on the web site (and 
usually, this proves to be a successful move in terms of dissemination, 
especially in vertical and complex areas like statistics - look at the 
successes of R for an example of that).

> 2) Do I need to / can I put some Copyleft (or whatever) on it to keep it
> free, or can it stay there 'forever free' without a license?
You have to explicitly describe the status of the code, and which 
restrictions (if any) you want to add. For example, you may want to use 
the GPL license, or a Creative Commons one, depending on the desired 
target audience.
best regards
 						Carlo Daffara