Do I need license to release the Python version of old BASIC games?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 22 Jun 2015 07:28 am, Michael Torrie wrote:

> As to the question of assigning a copyright license to code, in this
> case I suggest just releasing the code marked as public domain.

Public domain is not a licence, and many places (including the US) do not
allow individuals to put works into the public domain. (US government works
are a special case.) Some places will not recognise a public domain
dedication, and will treat the work as being legally copyrighted by you
with All Rights Reserved. Some legal jurisdictions prohibit owners from
surrendering some or all rights.

You might not choose to pursue a copyright claim, but your heirs might,
which means that a "public domain" release is legally unsafe unless the
work actually is in the public domain due to age.

For that reason, you are better off publishing the work with a Creative
Commons CC0 licence:

https://creativecommons.org/about/cc0

https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Public_domain


As far as whether your work counts as a derivative work, you *may* be on
solid ground if you just re-use the algorithms from the BASIC code, and not
either the author's descriptive text or the BASIC code itself. But I am not
a lawyer (neither is anyone else here).

My advice is to make an attempt to contact the original author, or at least
the atarigames website, explain that you have converted the code to Python,
and ask permission to publish under the cc0 licence or similar. It's just
safer that way.



-- 
Steven