Revised License Committee Report for March 2009

[John Cowan]

Russ Nelson scripsit:

> The only (ONLY) reason to write a license rather than putting your
> software into the public domain is because you plan to sue at least
> one of your users eventually.  

Russ, why do you troll your own mailing list?

You know perfectly well this is not true.  [The Reproof Valiant: see
http://recycledknowledge.blogspot.com/2005/05/seven-degrees-of-lie.html .]

By providing a license, even a perfectly permissive one, you disclaim
any warranty, thus discouraging your users from suing you.  Furthermore,
you eliminate any uncertainty about whether a dedication to the public
domain is actually effective in a specific jurisdiction, or for that
matter in all jurisdictions.  (Some say it isn't.)

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org   http://ccil.org/~cowan
Assent may be registered by a signature, a handshake, or a click of a computer
mouse transmitted across the invisible ether of the Internet. Formality
is not a requisite; any sign, symbol or action, or even willful inaction,
as long as it is unequivocally referable to the promise, may create a contract.
       --Specht v. Netscape