[socal-piggies] License question

[Howard B. Golden]

On Sunday January 17, 2010, Dan Stromberg wrote:

> I've heard mixed comments about "Public Domain" software.  Some say
>  it's an all-permissive license, some say it isn't a license.  Some
>  say it doesn't truly exist, that even if you say something is PD,
>  it's still under your own copyright.  Others say that if you make
>  something PD, it's truly a free for all, and someone else can come
>  along, take the PD code, copyright it, and legally bar the original
>  author from having any rights to the code they wrote.

I suggest reading the public domain article in Wikipedia. It makes it 
clear that one cannot copyright something put into the public domain by 
the author or copyright holder, even if it is incorporated into a 
copyrighted work.

One concern I would have about public domain vs. another approach (e.g., 
MIT license (see Wikipedia)) is that the licenses allow you to disclaim 
any liability or warranties (including implied warranties). Of course, 
IANAL.

Howard