From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 8 10:22:58 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C961A1065670 for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 10:22:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com) Received: from mu-out-0910.google.com (mu-out-0910.google.com [209.85.134.188]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BE948FC17 for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 10:22:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com) Received: by mu-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id w9so633992mue.3 for ; Fri, 08 May 2009 03:22:57 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=LSv9JMFAc/dKoLebEPipF2WiSaKI8P+LBCGGv7z24Vk=; b=AeIPP5JhvqDDh0thFxwCbg/I6R3QUTESspAqnpcPqFl1/wh68gvxTWqG3iXg1aieMx 40aEw2DzLh3DbYptElj+hRUeHjG21xl5Mcbscf+vpNqGeNgyLG/11NQfGCMz3ETc8CYb PTPjOjDE1g1lrdA1W2EQZ7V7Dwi+VNuyMMSu4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=iH9puXGm4DMb1uaPSJqmw7gaX2ES9HaaMNihfq5YcTb8F8b1w9fG1uO32Ur8knrfRP 8ze4sIiRvud1Oh0pghXzhJ2fU7DJG5UOA52I63zrpTRhvrIcJR3bhC819vd+ajUG5+2l cCExj1gNDAj3ovryeY1bgp+AcfNZpLll/VXRg= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.239.157.138 with SMTP id q10mr215826hbc.162.1241778177144; Fri, 08 May 2009 03:22:57 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4A03BE9F.5050906@ibctech.ca> References: <4A03BE9F.5050906@ibctech.ca> Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 06:22:56 -0400 Message-ID: From: Mehmet Erol Sanliturk To: Steve Bertrand Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: "questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: Licensing X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 10:22:59 -0000 On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 1:09 AM, Steve Bertrand wrote: > I've got a question that is likely not suited for this list, but I know > that there are people here who can guide me off-list. > > Being a network engineer, I'm far from a developer. With that said, I've > written numerous network automation programs (mostly in Perl), and have > developed several small patches for software written in C related to ISP > operations (including the OS itself). > > I'm looking for advice on how I can take all of my code, and license it > into the public domain. I'm sure that most people won't have any > interest in it, but I really want to ensure that what I have done is > freely accessible. > > All of my code is pretty well separated into different files that > contain different functions, so isolating portions of my programs that > use modules or functions that are external is not a problem. > > GPL seems too verbose legally for me. Can the BSD license fit into any > code, no matter what language it is in, and if so, can I have my code > overlooked by someone who can verify that the BSD license will fit? > > Steve > > Dear Steve , You may inspect the following pages and links in them : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_software_licenses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Software_by_license http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Software_licenses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Software_distribution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain I am not a lawyer and I can not comment on your possible decisions . My suggestion would be to study related laws in your country before making software available to public because some companies may not allow employees to disclose any software whether they write themselves without getting any support form their employers . There is no any relationship between programming language used and the license kind selected . License is the terms of use of the disclosed sources by the others . Another concept is Copyrights . You can only license a source which its copyright is exactly belongs to you . In some countries specifying a copyright on a work actually copyrighted by another entity may induce a legal penalty . For me , the best license is BSD-style licenses because recipients of software may use them in open and closed source applications . Since licenses like GPL and LGPL Version 3 requires disclosure of linked main programs , they can not be used in closed source applications . Therefore , any commercial entity can not use them and would NOT support them . Thank you very much . Mehmet Erol Sanliturk