18 Mar
2008
18 Mar
'08
10:54 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
"The purpose of the internet is for the free
sharing and exchange of
other people's intellectual property." ?
To whom should you attribute? The corporation that originally produced
the work or whoever scanned it? Even if you make use of (for example)
DEC's (possibly limited) permission to make copies or even if you've
gone so far as to ask for permission to make copies, I very much doubt
that the originators of many of the copies on the net could claim any
kind of ownership.
I'd be happy with Al's suggestion of a top level MD5 file. That
might save me from a large download of something I've already
got, possibly from elsewhere, possibly under a different name.
If there is no attribution and copyright, then you
have NO control
over whether somebody else can charge for it. That is one reason why
Richard Stallman has draconian copyright provisions. (You may not
use ANYTHING of his if you include it in ANYTHING that will be sold -
you may not copy one of his subroutines into a commercial product.)
If RMS has some personal licence that is not the GPL, then you may
be right. But if you mean the GPL, then you are wrong. I most certainly
can charge for it and I can incorporate it into my software. I just have
to
comply with the terms of the licence (mostly making _all_ the sources
available).
If you want a "you can look and use but you cannot charge" licence
then you'll have to find another one (or make one up).
Antonio
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17/03/2008 10:48