[SOLVED] Licensing material
November 30th, 2013
http://creativecommons.org/choose/results-one?license_code=by-nc-nd&jurisdiction=us&version=3.0&lang=en
Can someone teach me some basics?
Creative Commons explicitly states that they do not recommend people use the Creative Commons licenses on software.
I would recommend one of the MIT, BSD or Apache licenses (they are all quite similar, basically people are free to reuse your code, as long as they give you credit, but dont claim to be associated or endorsed by you without your permission)
You might also like the GPL license, which requires that anyone who uses your code *must* license it under the GPL, which for firefox plugins etc should be ok, but for actual compiled programs can cause problems, due to the way they define ‘use’.
For my programs, I use the 3-clause BSD license, which states that
<program name>
Copyright (C) <year> <your name>
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* Neither the name of <your name here> nor the
names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
To break this down:
The copyright notice asserts that you own the source code.
the first bullet point states that anyone reproducing the source code must leave the copyright notice and license alone
the next bullet point states that anyone reproducing the program itself must include the license and copyright notice in the documentation
the third bullet point is fairly self explanatory
the block of text at the bottom is a warranty disclaimer, and states that you are not responsible for any damage that might happen if people use this software
Thank you very much. Can I just include it or do I have to register anywhere?
power_plus replied: Thank you very much. Can I just include it or do I have to register anywhere?
Nope, you just have to include the license in your documentation, and ideally as a comment at the top of every source code file
Thank you very much.