Copyright & License Questions

[J.H.M. Dassen (Ray)]

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On Thu, Jun 21, 2001 at 12:28:25 -0400, TARuiz at aol.com wrote:
>I'm new to these open source issues. So the following questions may be
>quite naive:
>1)  I've read that one should copyright their work and from there choose an
>Open Source license.

This isn't completely true: the public domain is an exception.

>Isn't copyrighting, though, against the concept of Open Source?

No. Copyright provides the legal framework via which an author can control
how a work can be used, distributed and modified.

For instance, as an author I can require that if binaries built from
(modified versions of) source code I wrote are distributed, that the source
must be made available as well (the GPL is a license along these lines).

The Free Software Foundation has a lot of relevant reading materials online
at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ .

Some authors are comfortable not to have any control whatsoever over how
their work is used, distributed and modified. They can "do away" with their
copyright by providing a notice that places the work in the public domain.
Such software, which legally speaking is no longer copyrighted, classifies
as Open Source software as well.

>2) If I were to assign a copyright, is it a matter of simply placing a
>notice of authorship and year? Is that enough in terms of a legal
>standpoint?

Yes, AFAIK in many countries (in particular, signatories to the Berne
convention on copyright) copyright is gained by the creation of a work, and
no formal registration of copyright or such is necessary.

>3) When I choice an Open Source license or a hybrid of some sort, does one
>just simply revise/copy a template of an existing license or just write a
>new one and insert this along with the software?

You should copy the template. Writing new licenses that comply with the Open
Source definition is a tricky job, and should not be undertaken lightly.

>7) If I had a client who hired me to do a customized and closed-version of
>the Open Source software, what license would enable me to do so?

A license places constraints on others than the copyright holder. As long as
you are the sole copyright holder of your software, the license on your
software does not prevent you in any way to make closed-source customized
versions of it. If you expect not to remain the sole copyright holder, you
may want to consider a license like the BSD or MIT one which allow
proprietary versions of your software to be made.

HTH,
Ray
-- 
Tevens ben ik van mening dat Nederland overdekt dient te worden.