Licensing Question

[Zach Dennis]

I wrote a suite of tools, webstar-tools,
(http://rubyforge.org/projects/webstar-tools/) in ruby in my own spare
time. I gave my code an MIT-style license.

I then had an employee write the same functionality in another language.

What would suggestions be to license the code? I want the code to be
available open source to the community, but if it is used I would like
it to be noted that the code retains author/ownership of the company I
work for. The new code is written in java. If the code is used
commercially I would like them to get written permissions/consent (or to
pay license for commercial use), but if the code is not resold by
itself or in another product I would like it to be used freely by everyone.

Thanks,

Zach

 

[Austin Ziegler]

What would suggestions be to license the code? I want the code to be
available open source to the community, but if it is used I would like
it to be noted that the code retains author/ownership of the company I
work for. The new code is written in java. If the code is used
commercially I would like them to get written permissions/consent (or to
pay license for commercial use), but if the code is not resold by
itself or in another product I would like it to be used freely by everyon=

e.

You will probably need a custom licence for this; the GNU GPL or
possibly the MozillaPL (I prefer the MozillaPL) would be acceptable
choices, too, excepting the "resold by itself" part, to some degree.

-austin
--=20
Austin Ziegler * (e-mail address removed)
* Alternate: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Aredridel]

I wrote a suite of tools, webstar-tools,
(http://rubyforge.org/projects/webstar-tools/) in ruby in my own spare
time. I gave my code an MIT-style license.

I then had an employee write the same functionality in another language.

What would suggestions be to license the code? I want the code to be
available open source to the community, but if it is used I would like
it to be noted that the code retains author/ownership of the company I
work for. The new code is written in java. If the code is used
commercially I would like them to get written permissions/consent (or to
pay license for commercial use), but if the code is not resold by
itself or in another product I would like it to be used freely by everyone.

That itself doesn't seem like an open license.

The closest is probably the GPL, which makes it inconvenient to re-sell,
though not impossible.

Anything that restricts commercial use directly is not open source.

 

[Zach Dennis]

What would I look for if all we wanted to do was to force people to pass
around the copyright author/ownership with the code, but they use the
code for whatever purposes?

Thanks again,

Zach

 

[ES]

What would I look for if all we wanted to do was to force people to pass
around the copyright author/ownership with the code, but they use the
code for whatever purposes?

Old-school BSD licence. This is my variant:

=3D=3D Authors
<name> <<email>>


=3D=3D Copyright
Copyright (c) <year> <name>, all rights reserved.


=3D=3D Licence
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions, the following disclaimer and
attribution to the original authors.

- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions, the following disclaimer and
attribution to the original authors in the documentation and/or
other materials provided with the distribution.

- The names of the authors may not be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior
written permission.


=3D=3D Disclaimer
This software is provided "as is" and without any express or
implied warranties, including, without limitation, the implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Authors are not responsible for any damages, direct or indirect.

Thanks again,

Zach

E

 

[Aredridel]

What would I look for if all we wanted to do was to force people to pass
around the copyright author/ownership with the code, but they use the
code for whatever purposes?

BSD. The version with the advertising clause isn't GPL compatible,
though. The two-clause should work.

 

[Jeremy Tregunna]

What would I look for if all we wanted to do was to force people to
pass around the copyright author/ownership with the code, but they use
the code for whatever purposes?

Three clause BSD license comes to mind. However, it's vague in some
areas, I would suggest you look at the AFL for a more modern BSD/MIT
license.

Just a thought.

 

[Timothy Hunter]

What would I look for if all we wanted to do was to force people to pass
around the copyright author/ownership with the code, but they use the
code for whatever purposes?

Thanks again,

Zach

The MIT License. http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php