On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 22:04, Steve Bertrand <st...@ibctech.ca> wrote: snip > I like the BSD license, and I am a BSD person, but I'm asking for > feedback from the creme-de-la-creme with regards to making code public, > so that I can put something in my code to ensure that someone else > doesn't decide that they want to "claim" it. snip
Given your desire to keep the code free (i.e. not allow people to create closed source forks), your best option is the GPLv2[1] or GPLv3[2] licenses. Perl itself and many of its modules are dual licensed under GPLv1[3] or later license and the Artistic License[4]. The GPL basically says that you must provide the source code in the preferred form to people you give or sell the binaries to (if they ask for it). The Artistic License is similar, but a bit more free (the GPL gets a bit hinky when you want to combine GPL and commercial code). Neither license prevents people from selling the software in question, but both require that source be available (or made available), so anyone charging an arm and a leg for it will rapidly find free versions being made available (see CentOS and RedHat for an example). Personally I like the Artistic License, especially over GPLv3, which is starting to get too political for me. 1. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html 2. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html 3. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-1.0.html 4. http://dev.perl.org/licenses/artistic.html -- Chas. Owens wonkden.net The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
