I have many questions and do not really know where to start

[John Cowan]

Daytona ePro scripsit:

>  3)  I have concerns about being small.  For instance I would be very 
> unhappy if a company were to take the source code, improve upon it in 
> house, and sell the modified code under a restrictive license where I do 
> not have access to the source.  This would essentially shut me out of my 
> own code.  I think I would rather melt my hard drive and let it be the 
> greatest unpublished project in my own mind than see that scenario happen.

Then you definitely want a reciprocal license such as the GPL rather
than a permissive license.

>  4)  I do not think this is an issue among licenses but I  want to make 
> sure I reserve the right monetize my own distribution or official 
> technical support efforts.

That always remains your right as the copyright owner.

>  5)  I do not understand how open source licenses impact future 
> revisions.  Do certain licenses assert every code modification is open 
> source?

In general, it's bad to restrict people from making private code
modifications, unless your program is meant to be used server-side.
The GPL requires that if people distribute modified source code in source
or binary form, they must also distribute the source under the GPL;
but distribution is never *required*.

>  Does the copy right holder have the right to modify a license 
> at any time?

Yes, although it may be problematic to retract the rights of people who
are already acting on the license.

>  6)  What do I do just pick one of the commons licenses, download, and 
> implement it?

My personal recommendation is that you use the GPL version 3, which
contains instructions on applying it to your code.

-- 
After fixing the Y2K bug in an application:     John Cowan
        WELCOME TO <censored>                   cowan at ccil.org
        DATE: MONDAK, JANUARK 1, 1900           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan