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#1 2011-04-17 18:45:26

hauzer
Member
From: Belgrade, Serbia
Registered: 2010-11-17
Posts: 279
Website

Public domain.. license?

If software/package has no license (public domain), what should I put in the license array in PKGBUILD?


Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

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#2 2011-04-17 22:09:08

thisoldman
Member
From: Pittsburgh
Registered: 2009-04-25
Posts: 1,172

Re: Public domain.. license?

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=52870

I tried to find an example of "public domain" software.  "Public domain" is a nebulous legal concept not recognized in all countries.

The U.S. federal government issues software, such as the USGS' Phreeqc, released to the public and there is a "Software User Rights Notice" available.  I found the rights statement only through lots of searching.  For something like that, I'd suggest custom: USGS.  The statement is similar to the GPL but much shorter.  Yet, still, some reviewers and users refer to the Phreeqc software as "public domain."

The USGS software listings are at http://water.usgs.gov/software/lists/geochemical and the license is at http://water.usgs.gov/software/help/notice/.

Somewhere, there has to be a statement by the author or publisher that the software has been released to the public for free use and modification.  What software is it?  I'll help to find that statement with you.

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#3 2011-04-17 22:16:34

hauzer
Member
From: Belgrade, Serbia
Registered: 2010-11-17
Posts: 279
Website

Re: Public domain.. license?

It's not really 'software', it's just some gEdit syntax highlight files. Go here, search for gedit and you'll see it. The package is on AUR (gedit-euphoria), I was just curious about such cases where there isn't a license or is explicitly given as "public domain". Maybe something like this could be used.

Last edited by hauzer (2011-04-17 22:17:55)


Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

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#4 2011-04-17 23:10:35

thisoldman
Member
From: Pittsburgh
Registered: 2009-04-25
Posts: 1,172

Re: Public domain.. license?

The license is GPL2 or later.  See the head of the 'euphoria.lang' file for the license.

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#5 2011-04-17 23:16:34

hauzer
Member
From: Belgrade, Serbia
Registered: 2010-11-17
Posts: 279
Website

Re: Public domain.. license?

Heh, thanks. I've read that file but somehow didn't register the license attached.. Still, the question remains.


Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

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#6 2011-04-17 23:39:12

jaco
Member
From: Toulouse, France
Registered: 2011-03-17
Posts: 149

Re: Public domain.. license?

As said before, "domain public" depends on the country...

In France, for instance, there's something call "droit moral de l'auteur" (author's moral rights), which still applies to the domain public works :

- the right to give public  access to the work
- the right be the known author of the work
- the right to the respect of the work quality
- the right to remove the public access to the work

The english laws don't recognize this moral right...

If you can read french, take a look at http://www.libroscope.org/BSD-CC-BY-dom … -promenade

Last edited by jaco (2011-04-17 23:39:35)

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#7 2011-05-24 06:37:44

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Public domain.. license?

sqlite is explicitly public domain

SQLite is in the public domain. This document describes what that means and the implications for contributors.

http://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html :

Even though SQLite is in the public domain and does not require a license, some users want to obtain a license anyway. Some reasons for obtaining a license include:

    You are using SQLite in a jurisdiction that does not recognize the public domain.
    You are using SQLite in a jurisdiction that does not recognize the right of an author to dedicate their work to the public domain.
...

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