Donovan Baarda wrote:
Seriously, on the Python lists there has been a discussion rejecting an
md5sum implementation because the author "donated it to the public domain".
Apparently lawyers have decided that you can't give code away. Intellectual
charity is illegal :-)
Despite the smiley: It is not illegal - it just does not have any legal
effect. Just by saying "I am the chancellor of Germany", it does not
make you the chancellor of Germany; instead, you need to go through the
election processes. Likewise, saying "the public can have my code" does
not make it so. Instead, you have to formulate a license that permits
the public to do with the code what you think it should be allowed to
do. Most people who've used the term "public domain" in the past didn't
really care whether they still have the copyright - what they wanted
to say is that anybody can use their work for any purpose.
Regards,
Martin
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