Wondering if my license already exists

[Chris Zumbrunn]

On Aug 3, 2005, at 9:11 PM, Steve D. Perkins wrote:

> Can anyone tell me with reasonable assurance whether or not this 
> license is functionally equivalent to any existing OSI-approved 
> licenses?  It seems to be extremely close to the current BSD license 
> (the "disclaimer" in the third clause is directly cut-n-pasted from 
> that license).  However, I have some concerns about the BSD's 
> requirements regarding copyright notice.  As I have heard it 
> interpreted, the BSD license requires the authors of derived works to 
> include the original author's copyright notice and terms in the source 
> and docs.  Under this interpretation, the spirit of the old 
> "advertising clause" essentially persists, just in a less prominent 
> way.
>
>    Under the terms I wish to apply, including my copyright notice and 
> licensing terms in derived works is not necessary.  As I view it, ANY 
> modification to my software (including the simple act of stripping out 
> my copyright notice) results in the creation of a new and separate 
> work.  This is completely fine with me, so long as that new work is 
> not misrepresented as equivalent to my original work.  I have no 
> interest in "protecting my credit" in derived works... quite the 
> contrary, I wish to distance myself from derived works while 
> protecting my credit for my original work.
>
>    Is this in fact a new license, or is it equivalent to the BSD and 
> my interpretation is simply flawed?  Thanks in advance!

Your interpretation is not flawed, but the BSD license is probably the 
closest you can realistically achieve.

The short answer:

You can only restrict/control the way in which a work is attributed (or 
not attributed) to you if you retain the copyright. If you retain the 
copyright then the restrictions/conditions you place on the work need 
to be trackable/traceable, which requires a minimum of attribution. If 
you would go as far as placing your work in the public domain, you 
would no longer be able to control the way in which your name is used 
to endorse derivative works and you would no longer be able to disclaim 
any warranties.

If you retain the copyright and remove the copyright notice, you 
effectively disconnect the work form its license and it becomes 
unusable. If you don't know who owns the copyright to a work then you 
can also not know under which terms the copyright holder allows you to 
use it. Even if you place a work in the public domain and you remove 
any credits, how is anybody going to know that the work is in the 
public domain?

The long answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

Chris

chris at czv.com  +41 329 41 41 41
Chris Zumbrunn Ventures - http://www.czv.com/
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