Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: scriptingNews outline for 8/26/2000

Author:Fredrik Lundh
Posted:8/26/2000; 9:43:16 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 8/26/2000
Msg #:20320 (In response to 20319)
Prev/Next:20319 / 20321

I suspect that many of the people who voted that your program was "open source" were more confused about the definition of "open source" than about what your rights were! I'd wager that if you were to change your question to ask, "Is anyone allowed to use this code in his or her own program without asking permission?" you would have gotten very different results.

also note that the base64 example is a bit too trivial -- writing a base64 codec isn't exactly rocket science, and shouldn't take more than an hour or two.

things get a little hairer if we're talking about larger chunks of code. how about this little thought experiment:

if the frontier sources are posted on this site without an accompanying license text, what can you do with it (without talking to userland)?
  1. nothing at all -- I cannot even look at it.
  2. download a copy and read the sources, but only if I'm not working on (or plan to work on) any competing product.
  3. download/read, and perhaps reuse some clever implementation trick in my own programs.
  4. reuse an algorithm or specific design solution in my own code (say, the way you store data in the object database)
  5. use an entire subsystem in my application (say, the outline editor)
  6. extend it slightly, and sell binary kits for $149.

a lawyer would probably answer [1] or [2]. a programmer would probably answer [3] or [4] (with credits for anything non-trivial).

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