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Licensing Free Software

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Renegade:
^ I thought I saw that somewhere when I got into the whole licensing bit.  I use CC for my writing, but that's what got me started looking at licensing my software.  But looking into it, other than Renegade's and 40s suggestions, there doesn't seem to be much help for people who don't want to release the source. 

And the reasons for not releasing the source are valid:
1. A lot of the source is derived from code for other people that I maintain the rights to use- but not distribute. 
2. Other source is just not compatible with OSS, i.e. commercial components.
3. I've had experiences with OSS that I don't want to repeat- it's just easier to not deal with it, especially for something that I'm not looking to derive compensation from.

But people are so focused on OSS that they forget about people who just want to release free stuff.  IMO, the Free Software Definition shouldn't be synonymous with OSS.  But it seems to be.  Just because you can't tinker with use the source, doesn't make the software not free.

But that's a different rant...
-wraith808 (September 20, 2012, 10:56 AM)
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You make some very good points there.

Add to it that releasing source is still more work. You have to pull out somethings, stick in others, etc. e.g. Licenses for other software used in it, etc.

Then you need to test that your released source actually compiles. How many times have you downloaded source and it wouldn't compile without a day and a half of work?

I put up one at Github here, but in general, it's just easier to release freeware.

TaoPhoenix:
Does CC work for software?  I thought it was only for artistic works (though one could argue that software was artistic, I suppose)
-wraith808 (September 19, 2012, 10:44 PM)
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In the Digital World, Everything Converges.

Part of the DeCSS hubbub was "at what point does art start becoming software"? There was some string of numbers, which then correlated to the security codes. So when can you not make art depicting numbers? When someone magically decides that X random number is now Forbidden To Copy?

wraith808:
I think anything can be abstracted to the point of absurdism, i.e. art as math which becomes code which becomes...

I think you have to deal with practicalities rather than abstractions.

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