Creative Common Copyright Notice in Standalones

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Fri Jan 7 19:17:57 EST 2011


David Bovill wrote:

 > The main issue for us here is about mixing code projects together
 > in ways in which the code can be used in clear ways for commercial
 > and non-commercial projects - removing the uncertainty. Let's just
 > make sure the code bases can be mixed together. If someone uses a
 > "strange" - CC style license, which is not GPL compatible, then I
 > won't be able to combine it with code that uses other licenses in
 > any legally robust way.

For some that may be a feature.

If you want GPL, use GPL.  MIT seems even more liberal, all the sharing 
without the forced openness downstream.  And then there's even public 
domain, the freest of all.


 > As a practical example I would not be able to submit my code
 > libraries or code I have form other people to the revIgnitor
 > project, as the license was hand crafted. Ralf changing the
 > license to a GPL compatible license made everything start to
 > work nicely.

That may work well for you, but that means for me I can't use revIgniter 
as an embedded system in a closed-source product.  Not that I have an 
immediate need for that, but I'd considered using revIgniter for a 
project recently, but that project has a likelihood to fork into an 
embedded proprietary component down the road, so GPL stuff would be 
challenging to consider.


 > The same will go with other projects that seek to make compilations
 > of open code. A mosaic of poorly thought out licenses will cause
 > real problems.

Anything poorly thought out will cause problems. :)

There are scenarios for meaningful sharing that aren't addressed by 
GLP-compatible licenses, so while it would be desirable if there were 
fewer licenses in the world, the diversity of needs seems to require 
equally diverse terms to describe them.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv






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