Re: Prefered License for forums content

[Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu>]

MJ Ray <mjr@dsl.pipex.com> writes:

> On 2004-05-03 18:45:16 +0100 Sebastian Feltel <sebastian@feltel.de>
> wrote:
>
>> Wich license (which fits the documentation needs and is
>> DFSG-compatible)
>> would you use if you were in my situation?
>
> Probably a very simple licence, a localised appropriate (by? by-sa?)
> Creative Commons licence (if available), the GPL, or the Design
> Science Licence.

I would keep two things in mind when choosing a license:

* First, if this is for posts made by others to your site, make it
  clear that they retain copyright, and by posting are giving *you*
  this license, and you are distributing to others under the exact
  same license.

* Second, I strongly suggest you avoid a copyleft.  It makes it easier
  to integrate other works into yours, and it lets you keep your
  license much shorter.  For even semi-fixed works, such as free
  software, I'm a big fan of copyleft licenses.  For a web forum, I
  don't think they make sense.

So I'd suggest the MIT/X11 license.

-Brian

-- 
Brian Sniffen                                       bts@alum.mit.edu