Open Source Licence (LGPL or GPL)

[David Bovill]

jbv wrote:

> I'm wondering : what is exactly the definition of the "public domain"
> concept in the field of software ?

Baiscally means the copyright holder gives you the right to do what you 
want with the code - no restrictions. Here is the MIT license:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The MIT License

Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a 
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including 
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, 
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to 
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to 
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included 
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS 
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF 
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. 
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY 
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, 
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE 
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's it. This is an Open Source Initiative (OSI) licence. You can 
check out the other main OSIU licenses here:

	http://www.opensource.org/licenses/


> Let's compare to music for instance (a domain in which I know a bit) :
> when a piece of music falls into the public domain, it means that the
> composer can't claim any copyright anymore for mechnical reproduction,
> public performances, etc.
> But when a band or an orchestra decides to make a cover of that piece
> of music (make new arrangements, add lyrics, etc) and then records a
> new version and releases it on CD (for instance), they can claim
> copyright for this new arrangement and for the performance of that piece,
> the producer can claim copyright for this specific recording, etc.
> although the original composition remains in the public domain...
> 

Sma e story.

> But how does it work for software ? For instance if someone would
> copy / paste a public domain script and include it without modification
> in a standalone and charge for it... Is this legal ? 

Yes

> And could anyone
> prove (or even know) that the code is from public domain ?
> And is the concept of public domain (at least for software)  exactly
> the same in North America and in EEC (for instance) ?
> 

Yes (probably) - as far as I know none of these licences have been 
tested in court - we are waiting to hear what SCO do.

> Last but not least : I don't want to be too confusing, but I'm wondering
> about smthing else : if someone from this list develops some rather
> sophisticated and useful piece of code (for instance, Alejandro is working
> on some bezier tool simulation, libURL is improving continuously, I for
> one am working on a 3D editor using openGL...), no doubt that these
> things would improve the MC IDE, but would be more than simple
> tweaks of what already exists...
> Would such tools find their place in the webpage you are discussing, and
> what about possible code stealing ?

That is up to the author and then the small group of people interested 
in contributing to the project. Most open source projects have no more 
than 5 or 6 active developers at any one time. Our main inital objective 
is to maintain the MC IDE as is - a minimal IDE. This would include libUrl.

I don't think any one want to do anything but keep the IDE completely 
minimal, but I do think that handler libraries could be hosted on the 
same site under the same license, and that these could greatly benefit 
from CVS). I certainly want to contribute my code and documentation in 
this way, but I do not want to 'expand' or complicate the IDE in any 
significant way. Minimal is the key. For a full blown IDE - use RunRev's.