Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Keith Thompson Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2020 13:45:19 -0700 Organization: None to speak of Lines: 51 Message-ID: <87d05sgnc0.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> References: <87pn9sgsjz.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="e65298912d242f4ec707cbaf38c780d7"; logging-data="26366"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+Mkj5ep5ntYJtQ05KPJcD+" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:V8mFOaGRm45xyGR6tnjQYbR+02M= sha1:38i0PtubnXQhDz9haPqh9eFuyAw= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:152869 David Brown writes: > On 21/06/2020 20:52, Keith Thompson wrote: >> David Brown writes: >>> On 19/06/2020 18:23, Malcolm McLean wrote: >> [...] >>>> However many people will shy away >>>> from incorporating routine pieces of third party code into their projects >>>> because of the licencing problem. >>> >>> True - that's why proper licencing is important. People know where they >>> stand with the GPL, BSD, or other proper licenses backed by copyright >>> information. They know when they can use the software in their own >>> projects, and when they can't. With "public domain" they have no idea >>> (unless the software is backed up with extra information, such as for >>> sqlite) and must avoid it completely. >> >> I don't know what "extra information" you're referring to. For sqlite, >> the only thing I can think of is that its authors explicitly state that >> they've released it to the public domain. >> >> If there's any uncertainty about whether a given piece of code is in the >> public domain, then incorporating it into a project could be risky. Is >> that what you were referring to, or is there something else? > > "Public domain" is a very tricky legal concept - and without copyright > information, it can be particularly hard to establish the origin of > code. SQLite give extra information beyond saying "this is public > domain" by their statements about the origin of the code. They also > offer paid-for "warranty of title" licenses for those that want > additional legal security. > > I am no lawyer - but I'd be sceptical about using public domain software > of any significance in a commercial project. But I'm fine with > copyright-based licenses, assuming of course they are a fit for the > licencing needs of the project. If you're saying that you're concerned about being certain that some code really is in the public domain, then I think we're largely in agreement. I'm not convinced it's much of a problem, but this has already strayed far enough from topicality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-domain_software lists a number of public domain software packages. (Including Rogue in the list seems odd; current versions definitely aren't public domain, but they may have been based on older versions that were.) See also CC0 and the "Unlicense". -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com Working, but not speaking, for Philips Healthcare void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */