On Saturday 18 September 2004 15:02, Pavel Cahyna wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 06:38:32 +0000, Ian Zagorskih wrote:
> > I want to make my work to be rally free for use by other people. From my
> > personal point of view, BSD license almost exactly does this and GPL
> > license heavily restricts my rights. Question is: may i add 4th statement
> > like:
> >
> > 4. This source code may not me be distributed under other license.
> >
> > Well, probably this statement isn't clear but i all want is to be sure,
> > that my code will be always really free for any usage including
> > commercial and
>
> Maybe I don't understand the complexity of licensing, but how would your
> code be free for any usage including commercial, then? Commercial software
> have their own EULAs which are exactly "other license" in your terms, no?
> And if your code is used commercially without releasing the source code,
> how would it be "always really free"?
>
> Please correct me if I'm wrong.

For sure, my license statement/expectations weren't explained clear enough :)

I may use BSD licensed work in any way i like to if i:
1. Give credits to the author in appropriate place. For example in printed 
docs, copyright dialog for GUI apps and so on.
2. Do not claim that original code was written by me.
3. Do not use author's name etc to promote my own work.

So i can:
1. Get original NetBSD source code tree.
2. Build my own internal distribution with any modifications in any place.
3. Use this distribution as a platform for my own commercial projects.
4. I don't have to publish anything including modified source code derived 
from NetBSD src tree nor my own work.
5. Of course i'll give credits etc in appropriate place of resulted work.
6. I don't have even idea to claim that derived work was made my be and so on. 
I respect other's work and rights.
7. We have enough of other ways to promote own work :)

This is how we use NetBSD today. We develop own hardware/software embedded 
devices and complexes for quite specific industry field - geophysics - and we 
chosen NetBSD as a platform to drive our own work. Due to the specifics of 
field we're working in, it's inappropriate to release most of our work with 
open sources. And due to the same specifics in most of cases it does not make 
any practical sence. At least from point of view of 99.999% people around. 
It's just useless for them [tons of math, end task oriented apps and so on].

I can say that NetBSD project greatly helps us today to do real usefull things 
which are needed by other people. Not some abstract stand alone source code 
itself but complex things we produce with help of NetBSD too.

Well, probably all written above is not directly linked with original problem, 
but all i want to say is that i like how BSD license works. For example, i 
make some code. I want to releast it as explicitly opened and free code. This 
is my choice. Among other it means that other people may get my code and use 
it in commercial and closed projects. Probably [but unlikely :)] with help of 
my code too they release some very successfull product, earn millions of 
dollars or something else. From my point of view this is great. This means 
that work i made is actually worth something and this is prooven by real 
life. Though i don't want to see their modified code. I don't want to force 
people to give me any feedback. Actually, i don't want to force people in any 
way. For me it is enough to know that my work is used somewhere and helps 
someone. Though mailing me like "your code is used in <abc>" isn't required. 
People choose.

I released my work for free and i want to be sure it will be free. As minimum, 
from the point of view and example i wrote above. From this POV re-licensing 
my work from BSD to GPL heavily restricts the end user rights. I want to 
avoid it.

// wbr