Which License Should I Use?

Chris Mellon arkanes at gmail.com
Thu Dec 1 09:05:28 EST 2005


On 11/30/05, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul Boddie wrote:
> > Paul Rubin wrote:
> >
> >>That is the guy who claims it is impossible to release anything into
> >>the public domain, other than by dying and then waiting 70 years.
> >
> > Is that an indirect reference to the following article?
> >
> > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6225
>
> Among other places where Rosen has said it, like his book.
>

In fairness, when on the one hand a lawyer (or 2, in this case) who
specializes in IP law tell you that something is uncertain, and on the
other hand, a non-lawyer (but certainly a smart guy) dismisses the
whole thing as stupid, I kinda tend toward listening to the lawyer.
Especially as, if you carefully read what is and isn't said, DJB
doesn't actually contradict Rosen or Lessig - he says that "as far as
he knows nobody has ever bothered the court with it", which is one way
of telling he's not a lawyer - a lawyer would say (as Lessig does in
his blog post) that there have been no test cases but his analysis of
the law is that there are inconsistencies and that were such a case to
occur, he is not sure who who would prevail. I'm not a legal expert or
a lawyer. But I certainly find Rosens detailed and well-explained
analysis of the situation to be much more convincing than Dans
hand-waving.

> --
> Robert Kern
> robert.kern at gmail.com
>
> "In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
>  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
>   -- Richard Harter
>
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>



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