> Go defend the humanity out of the misc@.
I think that discussing the legitimacy of intellectual "property" from a
philosophical rather than a practical standpoint is highly constructive
and beneficial.
The reason I completely reject the so-called copyleft "free" software
licenses and fully support the copyright policy of the OpenBSD project
[1] is that I am fundamentally opposed to any form of "ownership" over
intangible goods. I do not consider it ethical. I believe that I should
only have control over the original work hosted on my hardware. What
comes out of there should not be under my control. I find the
restrictions imposed by copyleft "free" software licenses to be just as
unethical as those used in proprietary software licenses. For me, the
end does not justify the means under any circumstances; it is a matter
of ethics. Since I don't want to make this email too long, I recommend
reading this article to learn about the arguments that support my (and
others') position on this issue [2].
Setting aside the philosophical aspects and focusing on practical
matters, I am content with avoiding legal complications by adding a
disclaimer clause and waiving any legal action, even if the sole
condition of retaining the license and copyright notice is violated.
> I meant CC0 specifically.
The main practical problem with dedicating a work to the public domain
under the current system is that some jurisdictions do not recognize an
author's right to relinquish their intellectual "property" "rights"
before the expiration of the term established by law. In cases where
public domain dedication is not legally possible, the author (by name)
must explicitly authorize the use of a work for any exceptions to the
standard intellectual "property" restrictions to apply. In summary, a
license is necessary to waive any copy "rights" privileges. As a result,
if someone in the U.S. dedicates a work to the public domain, it can
theoretically be used without restrictions in the U.S., but in another
country, it may be illegal for a recipient to use it without obtaining
explicit permission from the copyright holder (by name) [3].
References:
1. https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html
2. https://gist.github.com/LiquidZulu/a269df658060c9e9e358c3ad43b6b736
3.
https://cubicspot.blogspot.com/2014/03/writing-software-without-copyright.html
