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Getting Through the FOSS License Minefield

Posted by timothy on from the well-it's-more-like-a-small-blackberry-thicket dept.

dotancohen writes "Here's an exercise: Write a GPLed server for solving Freecell that the graphical game would communicate with using TCP/IP or a different IPC mechanism. Easy, right? Except for that pesky licensing bit. Our own Shlomi Fish gives an overview of the various options in picking up a licence for one's FOSS project, and tries to give some guidelines choosing one."

2 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. "minefield" ? GPL or FreeBSD by IBitOBear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GPL if you want to make people play nice.

    BSD if you don't care if people play nice.

    if GPL then GPL3 if you think corporate interests may be sniffing around later.

    Something else if you are building upon something that is licensed some other way.

    And gee, I didn't hear an explosion anywhere.

    --
    Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
    --"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
  2. And the point was? by kisa2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The author mentions on one occasion that he read the GPL v2 once and didn't understand it. And then he goes on to write an entire article about choosing the right licence for your FOSS code.

    Thats a little like me telling people that they shouldn't program in Pascal and that C is the best... even though I tried to program in Pascal once but just didn't get it.

    Is it just me?