On Thu, Mar 18, 2004 at 11:28:27AM +0100, Tobias Ringstr??m wrote:
> breser@tigris.org wrote:
>
> >+# Copyright 2004 Ben Reser <ben@reser.org>
> >+# Licensed under the terms subversion ships under or GPLv2.
>
> It's your script and your call, but why do you bother with an advanced
> dual license for a simple script such as this one instead of releasing
> it to the public domain?
To my understanding there isn't a way under copyright law to put
something in the public domain. You can sell your rights. You can not
enforce your rights. But as far as I know in the US there is no statute
that describes how to put something into the public domain.
Additionally, other countries actually explicitly say that the author
can't put things into the public domain.
However, this dual license really isn't the same as public domain.
There is some question as to if the license subversion is under is
compatable with the GPL. CollabNet has made it clear that they won't
fight anyone over essentially re-licensing subversion under the GPL.
This in effect makes subversion dual licensed. However, CollabNet has
not explicitly stated that in their license.
As a separate copyright holder I could interpret the subversion license
differently. I could also not agree with CollabNet about ignoring GPL
relicensing. So my wording was deliberate here. "terms" implies the
same meaning as CollabNet is applying to subversion (not just
necessarily the same words in the license) and GPLv2 means I'm okay with
GPLv2 licensing.
So the only question comes, why bother with such a simple script? A lot
of times these sorts of scripts get sucked up and stuck in with other
stuff. Or people grab some of the code for other reasons. If I'd known
of ready made code the split up arguments formated like greps arguments
are I would have used it...
I hope that clears things up. :)
--
Ben Reser <ben@reser.org>
http://ben.reser.org
"Conscience is the inner voice which warns us somebody may be looking."
- H.L. Mencken
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Received on Thu Mar 18 19:03:43 2004