From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What license to use for Emacs libraries? Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:15:34 +0100 Message-ID: <877fosz1ix.fsf@russet.org.uk> References: <877fosmhmv.fsf@mbork.pl> <87fv3gz2s1.fsf@russet.org.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1439936175 7882 80.91.229.3 (18 Aug 2015 22:16:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 22:16:15 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Stefan Monnier Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Aug 19 00:16:08 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAt-0001yH-B0 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:16:07 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59745 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAs-0001S3-9s for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:16:06 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:48963) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAg-0001RU-Uw for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:15:55 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAd-0002By-Pk for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:15:54 -0400 Original-Received: from cheviot22.ncl.ac.uk ([128.240.234.22]:55972) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAd-0002BY-Jq for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:15:51 -0400 Original-Received: from smtpauth-vm.ncl.ac.uk ([10.8.233.129] helo=smtpauth.ncl.ac.uk) by cheviot22.ncl.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAc-0002oV-D1; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:15:50 +0100 Original-Received: from cpc6-benw10-2-0-cust45.gate.cable.virginm.net ([92.238.179.46] helo=localhost) by smtpauth.ncl.ac.uk with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES128-SHA:128) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRpAZ-0001op-81; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:15:49 +0100 In-Reply-To: (Stefan Monnier's message of "Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:01:21 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.5 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 128.240.234.22 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:106692 Archived-At: Stefan Monnier writes: >> There are other options, I believe, including release under public >> domain which I you could do, although others can argue that this is a >> bad thing to do. > > Few people find it bad to "release in the public domain". Instead the > problem is that you can't do it. Your work will/should fall into the > public domain at some point in the future (currently defined as > something like 75 years after your death, tho there are strong > commercial interests behind pushing this even further into the future), > but nobody (other than time itself) can do that. > > Instead, you can release under a license that mimics the effects of > something being in the public domain (e.g. the CC0 license). Indeed, it is clearer to use a CC0 license, since that is explicit. Whether you can do it or not is a slightly different issue, of course. I think that you are correct wrt to the US, outside of the US government. In the UK, I believe that the term "public domain" has much meaning wrt copyright as "fair use" or indeed the term "Jeremy Clarkson": i.e. none at all. Neither Canada nor Poland would I wish to hazard a guess about! Phil