[License-discuss] Is CC BY appropriate for software?

[John Cowan]

xxlray at web.de scripsit:

> - It's fine if somebody used for free be it private or for business
> (i.e. commercial use shall be allowed)
>
> - It's fine if somebody uses the source code be it to re-distribute
> it or to build upon it (re-use and derivated shall be allowed)
>
> - It's even fine if somebody makes money from the source code itself
> or a derivate

All open-source licenses permit these things.

> - What I want in exchange is attribution when somebody uses the
> source code, modifies it or modifies a derivate of my source code.

You can have some of that, but not all, and it depends on what you mean
by "attribution".  If you mean that you want modified versions of your
program to display your name, company name, logo, etc., then that is
not open source, because open-source software allows arbitrarily small
parts of your code to be reused, possibly in headless (server-side)
applications.  If you just want your name etc. to remain with the source,
that's pretty much automatic under copyright law.

If you want some guidance about which open-source license to use, you
can google for [open source license wizard].  I personally recommend my
own wizard at <http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/floss>.

-- 
All Norstrilians knew that humor was            John Cowan
"pleasurable corrigible malfunction".          cowan at ccil.org
        --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrilia