views:

71

answers:

4

So I'm looking for web sites, and books to learn about licenses Books would be great, I'm sure I can get them from the university libraries.

Ok, I have some code I'm going to release to the public. Some of it is quite valuable (not massively but quite valuable), 100's of manhours. I want to keep rights for it while making it available for use by others.

I don't know if I want to release the code, I think I might, as that means it can be compiled for many platforms (some of it runs off microprocessors, many of which are very similar, and could easily be cross-compiled for). I also might want to release it so others can use it as a learning resource.
I want to read about the pros and cons of releasing my source code

I especially want to avoid things like someone else copyrighting my code.
I want to learn what sort of protection license/copyright gives me

I want to learn about the different licenses: GNU-lesser, MIT, BSD etc

I may wish to do a separate license for a select group of people,*
I want to learn about releasing programs under multiple licenses, and about private releases

*I want to allow a friend (who's working on the hardware side of this project) to use this code for a university assessment (It's code for controlling servos and ESCs and sensors and lights. and my friend's assessment is some MECH thing about building a device to transport rice. We're still not sure of the rules, with regard to using publicly available resources - after all he's not expected to build his own motors, is he expected to write his own serial servo controlled? I don't know.)

Web sites are OK, but I will emphasize again how a book would be much more useful to me than a web site. Very much my preferred medium.

A: 

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html ?

Vi
+4  A: 

Have a look at the Wikipedia Free Software Comparison Charts for the beginning. If you've picked one license which seems to fit your needs, read it.

I'd go with the GPL, it ensures that you'll keep the copyright and that modified versions will also be available to the public under the same terms.

Bobby
A: 

A couple of simple, easy to understand articles on the subject

HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 1)

HOWTO: Pick an open source license (part 2)

ohadsc