Help Selecting License

[Fabian Bastin]

Alex Rousskov wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Jul 2004, Fabian Bastin wrote:
> 
> 
>>An interesting starting point (at my opinion) is the Licensing
>>Howto, written by Eris S. Raymond:
>>http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/Licensing%2DHOWTO.html
> 
> 
> IMHO, it would be nice if that useful document was linked from the OSI
> web site (as work in progress, I guess).
> 
> Note that the document currently does not seem to cover Public Domain
> designations (which, IMHO, should be the first consideration when
> deciding on legal basis for software).

While I am not a lawyer, I think that Public Domain does not exist in a 
legal sense in most of the European countries. In particular, an author 
cannot give away all his rights, especially with respect to his honour. 
You can only speak about Public Domain after the expiration of the 
authorship rights (usually seventy years after the author's death), 
otherwise it can lead to confusion. Therefore you should probably be 
very careful if you try to clarify what Public Domain means on an 
international level.

It would be useful if some European lawyers could correct me if I am wrong.

Regards,

Fabian