4 ms·

Pretty interesting, just a pity he didn't specified an actual license, as "disclaims all copyright" has no legal value and even if it had, it would certainly me

by allan_s 12y ago

Pretty interesting, just a pity he didn't specified an actual license, as "disclaims all copyright" has no legal value and even if it had, it would certainly mean different things from one country to an other (for example in France you can't, even yourself, put something you've produced in the public domain as you can't cede your paternity 'right')

gojomo 12y ago
Surely, a formal license or public-domain-dedication (such as 'CC0') would be better – and perhaps especially better for the author, who could then clearly disclaim other implied warranties. But the "disclaims copyright" language probably has some legal value, in many jurisdictions. It might be interpreted as a public-domain dedication, where those have meaning. Or, as a promise which was relied upon, preventing a later copyright-enforcement claim by estoppel doctrines. A lawyer could say, and of course the advantage of existing licenses/dedications is that they've already been legally reviewed for clarity across many jurisdictions. But this sort of overt declaration may still protect many re-users if push ever came to legal shove. And it might even be useful to establish such a precedent – that sharing is safe with only such a small, clear, plain, blanket statement.
- th0br0 12y ago
  Not in a fair number of European countries (France, Germany, ...) - as the op stated you can not cede your copyright which is granted by law. You can't even sign it away (instead have to grant an unlimited + exclusive license to your employer for example)
  - gojomo 12y ago
    Good to know! (That's why I included the qualifier "in many jurisdictions".) Here, also, Creative Commons' "CC0" declaration is a friend of authors who want to be universally open. CC0 was designed with multiple fallback clauses, intended to also handle copyright systems like those of France or Germany.
    - cpach 12y ago
      The ISC license is much simpler: https://www.isc.org/downloads/software-support-policy/isc-license/ https://www.isc.org/downloads/software-support-policy/isc-li... But perhaps not as universal?
      - vertex-four 12y ago
        CC0 doesn't even necessarily require that you distribute the license text or copyright notice. You can use it as you'd use a public domain work - do anything with it.
  - vidarh 12y ago
    In France at least you can cede what in English would be called copyright. What you can not sell are the moral rights, and this is the case or a bunch of European countries. I'm not aware of any European countries where you can not cede reproduction rights / proprietary rights?
ers35 12y ago
I took inspiration from SQLite: https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/blob/master/dep/sqlite3/sqlite3.h#L4 https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/blob/master/dep/sqlite3/s... I agree that the licensing terms need clarification.
- tjaerv 12y ago
  SQLite does seem to have that effect of inspiring other public domain works: http://unlicense.org http://unlicense.org
- bch 12y ago
  Richard Hipp went on to say he wishes he didn't use public domain, because of its ambiguity. see: https://web.archive.org/web/20120510151444/http://methodlogic.net/BSDFossil.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120510151444/http://methodlogi...
ers35 12y ago
I added CC0: https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/commit/6047b1e44bc60ce4eaf830f6475f918c43e1dfb6 https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/commit/6047b1e44bc60ce4ea...

by allan_s 12y ago

gojomo 12y ago

Surely, a formal license or public-domain-dedication (such as 'CC0') would be better – and perhaps especially better for the author, who could then clearly disclaim other implied warranties. But the "disclaims copyright" language probably has some legal value, in many jurisdictions. It might be interpreted as a public-domain dedication, where those have meaning. Or, as a promise which was relied upon, preventing a later copyright-enforcement claim by estoppel doctrines. A lawyer could say, and of course the advantage of existing licenses/dedications is that they've already been legally reviewed for clarity across many jurisdictions. But this sort of overt declaration may still protect many re-users if push ever came to legal shove. And it might even be useful to establish such a precedent – that sharing is safe with only such a small, clear, plain, blanket statement.

th0br0 12y ago
Not in a fair number of European countries (France, Germany, ...) - as the op stated you can not cede your copyright which is granted by law. You can't even sign it away (instead have to grant an unlimited + exclusive license to your employer for example)
- gojomo 12y ago
  Good to know! (That's why I included the qualifier "in many jurisdictions".) Here, also, Creative Commons' "CC0" declaration is a friend of authors who want to be universally open. CC0 was designed with multiple fallback clauses, intended to also handle copyright systems like those of France or Germany.
  - cpach 12y ago
    The ISC license is much simpler: https://www.isc.org/downloads/software-support-policy/isc-license/ https://www.isc.org/downloads/software-support-policy/isc-li... But perhaps not as universal?
    - vertex-four 12y ago
      CC0 doesn't even necessarily require that you distribute the license text or copyright notice. You can use it as you'd use a public domain work - do anything with it.
- vidarh 12y ago
  In France at least you can cede what in English would be called copyright. What you can not sell are the moral rights, and this is the case or a bunch of European countries. I'm not aware of any European countries where you can not cede reproduction rights / proprietary rights?

ers35 12y ago

I took inspiration from SQLite: https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/blob/master/dep/sqlite3/sqlite3.h#L4 https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/blob/master/dep/sqlite3/s... I agree that the licensing terms need clarification.

tjaerv 12y ago
SQLite does seem to have that effect of inspiring other public domain works: http://unlicense.org http://unlicense.org
bch 12y ago
Richard Hipp went on to say he wishes he didn't use public domain, because of its ambiguity. see: https://web.archive.org/web/20120510151444/http://methodlogic.net/BSDFossil.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120510151444/http://methodlogi...

ers35 12y ago

I added CC0: https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/commit/6047b1e44bc60ce4eaf830f6475f918c43e1dfb6 https://github.com/ers35/luakernel/commit/6047b1e44bc60ce4ea...