From what you say, is it really worth using the GPL on something this small? Does it contain anything novel that you want to protect from being used in a proprietary package? I like the GPL, and I use it for some things, but I wouldn't bother for a simple bash script. Something like the BSD license is much simpler. Whatever license you use, putting the appropriate boilerplate as comments should do it OK.
Jim Hartley Adam wrote: > Hi everybody! After considerable effort, I am almost ready to release > my first program for Linux, free to the public, and I'd like to do it > the right way. It's just a simple bash script for disc cataloging, only > 200 lines and probably not as good as something most of you could put > together in an hour, but it does do something useful, and it's entirely > my work. What's the best way to handle the legalities on this? Should > I release it under the GPL, or some other license, or what? And what > exactly should I do? The page http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html says > that to release it under the GPL, I need to put the following > boilerplate into it: > > <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.> > Copyright (C) <year> <name of author> > > This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify > it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by > the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or > (at your option) any later version. > > This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, > but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of > MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the > GNU General Public License for more details. > > You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License > along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. > > > Is just putting that boilerplate as a comment near the top of my script > sufficient? What would you advise? Thanks very much in advance! > > Adam Rubin > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > > Jun 4 - Sqeak! and eToys > Jul 2 - KVM (Tenative) > Aug 6 - Zenos > Sep 3 - TBD > -- Teen Angel - a ghost story - http://teenangel.netfirms.com _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jun 4 - Sqeak! and eToys Jul 2 - KVM (Tenative) Aug 6 - Zenos Sep 3 - TBD
