Hi everyone! I have some questions to all of you, related to licensing of software and so on. After searching for a right license for some future software of my team I also read licenses like the GPL, Creative Commons, Adaptive public and Artistic license. I like the concept of OpenSource, so anyone can do almost anything with it, but I still don't think it's right. It would be nice if someone could tell me about his experience with this kind of license to answer me those questions: The project should be free for others. They should see/use the source code, but am I aware of crappy stuff made with it? (Although i've never seen someone acting on OpenSource this way, I'm unsure). It should always developed by a kind of team, but what about my rights as maintainer? Can I stop other people messing around inside the project? I'm thinking about releasing my project on an OpenSource network, but I'm quite unsure, since the project should follow some guidelines, so the fundamental idea and goal can be reached. Thanks [Edited by - S0n0 on May 10, 2006 4:45:04 AM]

If you create a project, you are free to do whatever you want with it.

If you release it under the GPL, you are still free to do whatever you want with it. You can release one copy under the GPL, and you can still sell your copy, or release it under a different license. You still own the copyright on the stuff you wrote.

The code you released under the GPL/CC/BSD/Other license is subject to those terms, so somebody is free to start a new project with your work as the starting point. They do NOT own the copyright on the stuff you wrote, so they must keep it under the GPL/CC/BSD/Other license.

But they do own the copyright on the stuff they wrote, so if you want to incorporate their changes back into your project, you will need to use their license, which necessarily must be the same GPL/CC/BSD/Other license you gave it out under. Or you have to get written permission to incorporate it back in your project under different terms --- just as you still have your rights, they still have their rights.


If you maintain your own project on an open network like SourceForge, you maintain control of who can check stuff in and make changes to the source. Other users cannot take that control away from the project owner.

But you can't stop anybody from starting a new, competing project.


I hope that helps.

Thanks, that helps!

but what about the term residing in the GPL which means "We protect your software in two steps... we copyright it..."

does it mean what I read there, or is there something additional what i have to be aware of putting a copyright on it?