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Subject: Re: a dev question about the Sansa Clip

Re: a dev question about the Sansa Clip

From: Antony Stone <Antony.Stone_at_rockbox.open.source.it>
Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 10:33:54 +0100

On Sunday 31 May 2009 08:44, Daniel Stenberg wrote:

> On Sun, 31 May 2009, Tomer Shalev wrote:
> > The *VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE)* is free software
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software> released under the
> > GNU General Public License
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License> (GPL),
> > from which some closed-source features are missing.
> >
> > This version cannot be closed again, and will remain in the public domain
> > forever.
>
> Let me just nitpick/correct you and mention that Public Domain is not the
> same as Free Software or Open Source. The mentioned VirtalBox software is
> not public domain but is Free Software.
>
> Free Software and Open Source are copyrighted software that are explictily
> licensed to be open/free. Public domain is software that has no copyright
> at all and which according to some aren't even license compatible with lots
> of free/open source licenses...

Since copyright is automatic upon creation of a piece of work, surely it isn't
possible for anything to have "no copyright"? You don't have to register
anything to get copyright (like you do with a trademark); you don't need to
have any legal agreement to get copyright (like you do with a licence);
copyright simply exists as soon as something is created.

Therefore I don't think it's possible to avoid copyright existing on a created
piece of work. However, copyright is entirely different from the licence
under which something may be used / distributed, etc.

I agree with you completely that Open Source and Free Software are entirely
different from Public Domain software, however I think Tomer's original
statement about VirtualBox being out in the public domain (without the
capitals) is meaningful. It means something is readily available without
having to go to a specific source of supply.

And yes, the most important part of all this is that once something is
licensed under the GPL, it remains open for ever, including derived works.


Regards,


Antony

-- 
Never automate fully anything that does not have a manual override capability. 
Never design anything that cannot work under degraded conditions in emergency.
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Received on 2009-05-31

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