Georg Horn wrote:

> Well, originally i just wrote that thing because i needed it, without thinking
> about any licenses. I put it under the gpl because Domenico Andreoli (added to
> the Cc line), who builds the curl package for debian, encouraged me to do so.
> I personally think that the gpl is ok, others might think different...

I think GPL is ok for applications, but for libraries, components, interfaces,
glue code, and similar code that is going to be used by other applications,
you should consider a more cooperative license such as LGPL or a BSD-like
license.

Please note that cURL is not licensed under (L)GPL. A lot of thought went
into that decision (including discussions with Stallman).

> In order to allow you to view my excellent code ;-)) i have built a new
> package, that is under no license at all (i originally published the thing
> on freshmeat as "public domain"). See

I know most developers don't really understand or care about licensing issues.
However, it is important to note that you may be held responsible for any
difficulties (as defined by law) that your code may have caused. To avoid this
you should add a legally binding disclaimer for your code. Three steps are
necessary to do this (and this is basically what the BSD-like licenses does)

  1. Add a copyright notice, so that your license is legally founded (this
     is not strictly necessary according to the Berne convension, but it
     is better to be on the safe side -- and besides, the copyright notice
     helps to identify the holder of the copyright).
  2. Add a license which makes sure that the disclaimer remains.
  3. Add a disclaimer.

The following example is my personal favorite license (a slightly modified
version of the license found in the BIND package), and it does exactly the
above:

 Copyright (C) <insert-current-year> <insert-name-of-authors>

 Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
 purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
 copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE AUTHORS AND
 CONTRIBUTORS ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY IN ANY CONCEIVABLE MANNER.

This license is also GPL compatible.

_______________________________________________
Curl-library mailing list
Curl-library_at_lists.sourceforge.net
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/curl-library
Received on 2001-04-11