[OT] What is Open Source?

[Tim Peters]

[Tim]
> Me too, but at least one lawyer has told me it is a fantasy
> world, i.e. that an individual in the United States cannot put their
> work in the public domain:  you can't disclaim your copyright even if
> you want to, unless it's work done for the government and "they" put
> it in the public domain.

[Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters]
> All the Python PEP's seem to contain a disclaimer about being placed
> into the public domain.

Yup, and PEP 1 tells PEP authors to do this.

> Do you think Python has a problem because of this?

Not at all.  Perhaps it carries no legal force, perhaps it does:  IANAL, but
Python couldn't care less either way.  The only people it might bother are
the overly paranoid, fearing that if they reuse a PEP as if it were truly
public domain, one of the authors may come after them brandishing a lawyer's
opinion that the "public domain" declaration was without force.  Other
countries would probably laugh that out of court, but you never know what a
US court might decide.

> (I think some other Python-related documentation, but forget
> exactly which).

Code too.  For example, you can find lines like this in several modules in
the std distribution:

# Released to the public domain, by Tim Peters, 03 October 2000.

When I do that, I don't care whether it has legal force.  So long as people
*think* they know what "public domain" means, they're getting the message I
intended to convey.  That I can lull them into a false sense of security,
and sue them someday for believing me, is just gravy <wink>.

i'm-gonna-get-soooooooooooooooooo-rich-ly y'rs  - tim