Re: [Fsfe-uk] Liberated software

[Chris Croughton]

On Wed, Oct 06, 2004 at 02:24:07PM +0100, Andy Kilner wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-10-06 at 13:44, Chris Croughton wrote:
> > 
> > Yes, that's my point exactly (in about a tenth of the words I used!).
> > "Liberated Software" does sound rather as though it was once captive
> > (software I write has never been non-free), but apart from that it
> > sounds good...
> 
> "It is a requirement of various international conventions on copyright
> that copyright should be automatic with no need to register."
> http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/std/faq/copyright/auto_protection.htm
> 
> Software you write is borne into captivity. When you distribute it under
> a copyleft license you liberate it.

Er, no, it is still copyright to me (or to the FSF if it's been assigned
to them), and certain freedoms are still curtailed with the (L)GPL.  It
is more liberated when I distribute it under a BSD-style or Zlib-style
licence, but since my own software is 'born' under that licence (it's in
my basic templates, so the licence is there before I ever write any
actual code) it is no more 'liberated' when I distribute it under the
same licence.

It is only fully 'liberated' if I put it explicitly into the Public
Domain, which I have done only rarely.

Chris C