[Texi2html-bug] Re: about public domain code in texi2html

[Patrice Dumas]

On Mon, Nov 03, 2008 at 11:21:22AM -0500, Derek Price wrote:
> Patrice Dumas wrote:
> > The code in texi2html.init is currently public domain, and so is the
> > code in examples/*.init (I am the author), except maybe for
> > mediawiki.init which has been mainly written by Derek.
> >
> > I think that it is better if it stays that way, to avoid licensing
> > issues when people cut and paste code from init files to customize
> 
> I hadn't given it any memorable thought previously, but I don't see why
> the init files should need to be in the public domain.  Even assuming
> they were currently GPL'd (as I had assumed, but not analyzed nor
> explicitly intended to release mediawiki.init under) nothing should

If they were GPL they would have had a license notice. And people would
have to copy the file license notice in their config file. I find that
very impractical.

> prevent users from copy & pasting - the new init file generated thereby
> just must be GPL'd as well, if distributed.

I think that it is very impractical. People not wanting to carry over
the GPL notice over their files have to think what is copyrightable and
what is not copyrightable.

> Anyhow, I feel a little safer with the author protections and I don't
> think it hurts anybody to protect the names we choose for our scripts to
> this extent (and thereby protect our users from confusion about the
> authors).  What advantage do you see to having those scripts in the
> public domain?

Not all the scripts, only texi2html.init. I just want that people can
copy and paste the code and do whatever they want with the code,
including put it under a restrictive license. 

Now there are parts that I would certainly like to protect (like the
index splitting stuff I have just rewritten), but I think that the bulk
of texi2html.init should be public domain.

--
Pat