Choosing a License for our projects

http://opensource.sg.feratech.com/licenses/index.php

That's a list of most of the opensource licenses. I suggest we choose one that suits us soon enough.

A few licenses I would like you guys to look at would be

The BSD License
Common Public License Version 1.0
GNU Lesser General Public License
Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL 1.1)

I say just keep it simple and protect our asses. Meaning have no liabilities on any damage. Do you guys actually care if your code is distributed and modified? My high recommendation is The BSD License. Very clean cut.

I hate legal stuff and documents. I got lost reading the licenses half way.....

Maybe first lay down what we wanna protect ourselves from, what we want to gain, what we want recipients of the packages to be able to do. If that is clear picking a license scheme would be easier.

First and foremost, protect ourselves from any liabilities to any damage caused by any of the codes/program that we wrote.

That's about all I need and really want. That's why I think the BSD License is sufficient enough, which covers all liabilities.

I'm not too sure what you guys want to gain, and how the source codes are going to be used.

Any modification to the code has to come back to us? or
No commercial use?
I dun know...

Any thoughts of protecting your Intellectual Property?

Also, any thoughts of making some $$$ out of the effort that you spend?

my only thourhg now is to create nova in such a way that it can be deployed in other sites, for exposure sake...
It would be nice to make the license dictate that any changes made to nova must be reflected back to us... but I'm not sure if that's a norm

kitkai wrote:

It would be nice to make the license dictate that any changes made to nova must be reflected back to us... but I'm not sure if that's a norm

Sounds like it is a good candidate for LGPL.

kitkai wrote:

It would be nice to make the license dictate that any changes made to nova must be reflected back to us... but I'm not sure if that's a norm

You can demand that - it's your license after all. But i don't think you wish to be emailed because of a change in variable name.

What I am thinking, instead of encouraging foreigners (relative to SgDotNet) to take and hack away for their own, entice them to join you in the effort. It will do an awful lot of good if an expert comes along to help. You guys have to maintain project lead to keep things in order.

icelava wrote:

What I am thinking, instead of encouraging foreigners (relative to SgDotNet) to take and hack away for their own, entice them to join you in the effort.

Aaaah... What you hinting ah?

icelava wrote:

It will do an awful lot of good if an expert comes along to help. You guys have to maintain project lead to keep things in order.

Also, be prepared for the possibility of forking because as time passes by, members will have different ideas and these ideas may deviate from the original objective.

Firedancer wrote:

Aaaah... What you hinting ah?

"Let our powers combine! ..... Earth!"

Just to be very cool to have people from around the world join in, instead of just us SEA developers.

Also, be prepared for the possibility of forking because as time passes by, members will have different ideas and these ideas may deviate from the original objective.

That's why somebody has to maintain control and direction for the project.

icelava wrote:

"Let our powers combine! ..... Earth!"

Go PowerRangers Go!

icelava wrote:

Just to be very cool to have people from around the world join in, instead of just us SEA developers.

Take it slowly. They'll come. Just focus on what we can offer first and leave the rest to nature

icelava wrote:

That's why somebody has to maintain control and direction for the project.

Still there is no stopping that someone can use the source of what you build and extend it towards another direction in another project.

hehe....

correct me if i'm wrong. I don't remember that LGPL must inform back the originator of the software that they make changes.

But if anyone is interested in finding out more on Open Licenses. They can find it all down here.
http://opensource.org/licenses/

It contains all the "Readme.txt" you always find when you download free software. It's kind of tiring reading all these stuff. I've only gone through GPL and BSD licenses cos they are quite short. hehehe....

Sounds like it is a good candidate for LGPL.

Good choice.

It allows the 'openness' of opensource,
and the $$$ if the users of your code want to keep their development proprietary.
Of course it relies on the trustworthyness of the users, but which doesnt?

BSD is bad for the original developers...
it ensures widespread use,
but it means people can just take take take,
and not need to give back.

yk.