On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 20:43 -0400, Rob Crowther wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I run Debian and I recently wrote a small Python program. However,
> while I do maintain it, I have placed it in the public domain. I read
> the Debian policy manual. After asking for more information about
> licensing issues and public domain packages on the IRC channel, I was
> told alternately that I would need a license and I should ask on the
> Debian legal mailing list. I then also looked in the Debian New
> Maintainer's guide, which states "program must have a license, if
> possible free as according to the Debian Free Software Guidelines."
Public domain is fine. In some jurisdictions, it will just be treated
as a very permissive license, since in those places, it's not possible
to place things in the public domain.
You will hear other people on this list claim that the MIT License is
better because it disclaims warranty, or it's actually a license, or
whatever.
In fact, the United States government is prohibited from holding
copyright for its own works, and therefore, we have some public domain
software in the archive already.
What we *don't* want, is software that is copyrighted (which PD software
isn't) and then without a license, because that gives us almost no
rights whatsoever.
--
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M<FUL+F=Y/@H)>2QA8F-D969G:&EJ:VQM;F]P<7)S='5V=WAY>BQN=V]R8FMC
5:75Q96AT9V1Y>F%L=G-P;6IX9BP)
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