My suggestion is to make life much easier for yourself.
list the app at palmgear/handango/freeware palm (noone is likely to notice
it otherwise) I'm 90% sure they don't require that you have a website.
add a readme.txt to the zip file that says.
-you may use this, but not sell or disassemble it.
-this software comes as is without any warantee (it might have bugs and
you can't sue me)
if you feel the need, put the same info in a form that displays the first
time the app is run.
no one is going to bother sueing you. Even in the US, it just wouldn't be
worth it. All software has bugs, including paid software. Users are cool
with that. Nobody is going to hire a lawyer to sue someone over a free
game that had a warning on it.
no one is going to bother disassembling your code. If the puzzle concept
is amazing, they may copy it, but no ammount of lawyering is really going
to protect you from that. Put a copyright notice on the app somewhere and
if someone copies you, you can choose whether or not to hire lawyers to
fight them (the answer is don't bother)
spend your time polishing the app and basking in the glory! The legal
stuff isn't worth the hassle.
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 22:42:53 -0000, Ed Pugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi.
I have never yet published any software, but I have written a cool (at
least, *I* think it's cool) strategy/logic puzzle game for the PalmOS,
and I want to make it available on a cost-free basis, once I have the
final version ready.
Before I publish it, I would like to know how to properly license it to
protect myself. So, I am wondering if there is any general "form"
licence available that I can use to license my game.
I want to make the software cost-free, and allow free distribution to
any user, but keep the copyright assigned to myself. I do NOT want to
publish the source code (so the GNU GPL licence cannot apply, since this
is not really "free software" according to the definition of the Free
Software Foundation and the GNU Project, which requires open source to
be available). Also, I want to disallow reverse engineering or
disassembly of the code.
I do not want to allow anyone else to be able to make any money from
this game, since I am not making any money off of it, myself. (But I
*may* offer puzzle solutions for a small fee, but I would donate
proceeds to a specific charitable organization. I have not made a final
decision about this, yet.)
Finally, I want to protect myself from any possible liability (including
mental anguish, I suppose :-) ) and I do not want to be held responsible
for any warantee or support.
Is there any generally published "form" licence that covers the above?
What is the best way to publish a free game for the PalmOS? I do not
have my own web site and I believe that www.freewarepalm.com requires
one (but please correct me if I am wrong about that).
In addition to the PRC application file, I want to include a text file
with the licence and terms, a release notes file and maybe a text file
with game instructions. (Is there anything else I should include?)
Any other ideas on how to get started with publishing PalmOS software
would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and regards,
Ed.
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
--
For information on using the PalmSource Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe,
please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
