Is this better for tomsrtbt?

Tom Oehser tom at toms.net
Sat Apr 21 03:33:27 UTC 2001


> ...well, it doesn't fold in mail well....

Good point.  I'll work on that...

> Why your own variant of the BSD license instead of a lightly adapted
> one?  The issue is more one of cognitive distance than of unsuitedness

Well, the BSD license is basically trying to say, as I read it:

 Don't sue me or pretend I endorse your stuff in your advertising.


My license says, or attempts to say:

 Don't cp my stuff wholesale and make out like you did the work.


I don't feel it is necessary to explicitly protect myself from ad men
pretending I endorse their product, and I'm happy with only a few words
that there are no guarantees.  But I really didn't like it when I saw
high percentages of stuff on other distributions used without credit.
I am flattered if they use the stuff.  But I expect a note saying "this
work makes liberal use of stuff from X at http://Y by A at B.COM", and that
is what I want to make clear is required.  Which, though included in some
licenses, is not as much the central focus for _why_ there is any license
at all, for them, as it is for me...

-Tom




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