As for copyrights vs. licenses If you own the code (which if you wrote it you probably do), then you own the copyright. A license is simply giving someone permission (limited or otherwise) to use the copyrighted material. If you give the copyright to the public domain, then no one owns the copyright and thus there is no reason why someone would have to license the copyrighted material.
As far as practices and standards for people like us, we can talk the issue into the ground on what we want, but the bottom line is that if there's no licensing statement with the code, people aren't safe using it (legally speaking). If you want to be nice, include one. If you're paranoid, email the author. Lastly, you don't need to be a lawyer to write a license, especially if it's really simple. For example, if you want to let people use code as they see fit, simply state in plain English (or any other language for that matter) something like "You can use this for anything" or "I give this to the public domain." If you're paranoid you could include, "I am not responsible for any harm this code does to your computer." Done and done, no lawyer or standard needed. Lastly, if you're employed by a company you might not have the right to give the copyright or licenses because (usually) anything you write on company time is owned by the company. (Don't ask me to define "on company time.") This is sometimes also true for freelance work, but not usually. Personally, I'd say look for the licenses, state what you want your code used for in layman's terms or use a standard, and email the author if you're confused. - Dan On 2/6/07, Jason Hawryluk < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I willing to do that creative commons license if it makes people feel more comfortable. I'll have a look and see what's involved. I fully understand the requirement to protect yourself. Very good topic that I have to date just taken for granted. I just always assumed that if I put it out there it's yours to do with as you wish. I'd hate for people *not* to use this stuff for these kinds of reasons, it goes against why I write about it in the first place. Jason -----Message d'origine----- *De :* [email protected] [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] la part de* engkee *Envoyé :* mardi 6 février 2007 21:31 *À :* [email protected] *Objet :* [flexcoders] Intellectual property or licensing of posted/blogged work I have to commend you all for posting a lot of wonderful components and extensions to Flex... eg. Ely's calendar, Doug and Jason's tab navigator extensions, Ben and Trey's reflection effect, Alex's distortion effect, just to name a few. Unfortunately, in these day and age, I would have to ask... am I allowed to incorporate those wonderful works in commercial products? Am I even allowed to look at the source code, if I work for a company producing commercial software, without violating some IP issues. Most of them are not explicitly associated with any specific licensing terms. Sure would be nice if there could be some standard practice of associating these works with a common license, eg. the Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/) Maybe there already is some presumed license or disclaimer for "published" works. If so, please send a pointer. Just a thought. -Engkee
