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Generally, software which I make available here has been wholey written by
me. This software is made available either under the Don't Worry, Be Happy, Now Go Away
license, or the GPL. Each piece of software will specify the license it
is made available under.
Don't Worry, Be Happy, Now Go Away
This license is for trivial scripts which do not do anything of real
importance. It generally means that I have not spent any significant time
on it, and do not expect that anyone anywhere will ever be able to use it
to make money. I may be wrong, in which case you are welcome to use it
to make yourself beer money. Or even Porche money if you can.
Gnu Public License
This license is is used when I use GPL software as a component in building
the software you find here. The idea behind the GPL is that I can take GLP
code, use it in my own projects, and then distribute my own project under the GPL.
The basic idea is that I will have to share back to the community any modifications
that I make to code I get from the community.
A lot of people seem to think that this is a communist or anti-capitalist concept.
In my opinion, it is just fair -- I will let you use what I make, but there's
no way I think it is fair that you can make money off of what I do without some
explicit permission and compensation arrangement from me.
You always have the legal option of "not using my code" available to you.
The Free Software Foundation has a nifty FAQ
on the subject.
Note that I may have GPL'd a piece of software which is wholey owned by me; in
which case I, as the author, have the right to license it under different license
terms should a fair and appropriate compensation arrangement be reached. If
you don't like the GPL but desperately want the software anyways, it doesn't hurt
to ask me if that's possible. I'll warn you straight up front that even if
I did write everything in a particular program, the likelyhood of such an arrangement
is pretty small.
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