[Savannah-register-public] Re: FW: [task #7606] Submission of Ajax Micro Wiki

[Sylvain Beucler]

Hello,

On Thu, Jan 17, 2008 at 09:10:05AM -0000, Peleg Michaeli wrote:
> I see...
> 
> Well, first of all, I apologize: I thought you are a lawyer (maybe because
> you have written that you are software licensing expert somewhere?)

Probably not, but maybe I should disclaim it more often.

> Anyway, Expat license is definitely not good enough for me. It is NOT
> all-permissive; for example, in this line:
> "The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
> all copies or substantial portions of the Software".
> 
> Anyway, there's a good reason that licenses are not all-permissive. Why
> would day? If one intends to give all of the permissions, or in other words
> - release all of his "rights", than why should he use a "license"?
> 
> So I (we, actually - I'm not alone, I am only a representative of about 7
> people that are now working on this project) decided to release it to the
> public domain. As I have seen in GNU site, it IS compatible with GNU
> licenses; hence you should "allow" us to do that - moreover, I have seen a
> few projects in Savannah that are partially in the public domain (one that I
> have checked didn't even bother to put a notice in his files, except for
> "this file is in the public domain" and that's it...).
> 
> So - I have sent you this notice for 2 purposes:
> a. to hear your opinion; if you say you're not a lawyer, maybe I should get
> one? Do you know anyone that is a free software "activist", and will read it
> and give his opinion?
> b. for you to approve it; I remind you that you asked me to fix my "license"
> before I upload files... well, I am NOT uploading files to Savannah, but I
> am using its facilities, hence I want to clarify this issue.
> 
> If you have an answer to "a", I will talk to him/her before I will upload
> this notice. Otherwise, I will look for someone myself, and if I won't find
> one, I will want to use this notice as it is, but that is conditioned by
> your answer to "b"... :-)

I sent mail to address@hidden, who can provide suggestions based on
their experience asking for best practices to release code in the
public domain. You are in carbon-copy :)

It's not about 'allowing' public domain at Savannah, it's about
avoiding ambiguity. When you write a new license header this becomes
something new that needs to be carefully analysed by different people,
as I mentioned, hence why I suggested using the widespread Expat which
is a no-brainer for such people. I didn't mean to reject public domain
as an acceptable licensing scheme for Savannah project.

Probably a no-frills "this file is in the public domain" would work,
but let's hear from address@hidden

-- 
Sylvain