You mean something like this? /*************************************************************************** * Copyright (C) 2005 by Raphael Melo de Oliveira Bastos Sales * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify * * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by * * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or * * (at your option) any later version. * * * * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the * * GNU General Public License for more details. * * * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License * * along with this program; if not, write to the * * Free Software Foundation, Inc., * * 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. * ***************************************************************************/
On the top of every file? 2005/9/16, Uwe Thiem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On 16 September 2005 04:31, Raphael Melo de Oliveira Bastos Sales wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > > > I work with biotech and for about an 1 year I've been working on a > > web interface for genome/proteome data analysis. And I'd like to make > > it free software. But I still have doubts about legal problems I might > > face and about intellectual property. > > Basically, I don't want to restrict people on using and > > contributing with source or whatever, but don't want anyone taking > > credit for my work or pateting it and sending me a cease-and-desist > > letter. > > If anyone has any insight, references or links on this subject, > > please let me know. > > 1. Step > You make sure the stuff is your. So you stamp a copyright message all over it. > Basically, you put a copyright notification in each and every file. Now you > have made clear it is *your* intellectual property. > > 2. Step > You have to put it under an OSS license that suits you best. I guess the two > most widely used OSS licenses are the General Public License (GPL) and the > BSD license. There are quite some differences between them. In a nutshell: > The GPL does not allow to include any of your stuff in a piece of software > that is not under the GPL. In other words, Whoever wants to build software > based on yours has to make the result OSS under GPL as well. The BSD license > basically allows any use of your software as long as the copyright remains > unchanged (which prevents anyone from patenting it) and the result credits > you. > > All that said, if someone with a lot of money grabs your stuff an - say - > patents it you still have to challenge them in court which can take > considerable time and money. The GPL has a slight advantage in this case > because the Free Software Foundation (FSF) will help you legally. > > You should read through the available licenses even if they are a boring > read. ;-) > > Uwe > > -- > 95% of all programmers rate themselves among the top 5% of all software > developers. - Linus Torvalds > > http://www.uwix.iway.na (last updated: 20.06.2004) > -- > gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list > > -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
