Re: Copyright

[stratton-at-mdc.net]

Because the core EMC code is in the public domain, you can release
your extensions to it under any license you choose - from public
domain, to open source, to fully proprietary.  

If you use some of the extensions others have written which are not
public domain, you will need to use a license compatibly with the
terms already applied ot those extensions.

Otherwise, it would be nice if you release as much of your work as you
can under as open a license as your are comfortable with, but you are
under no obligation to do so.  

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to seperate any work you do into
different modules.  Everything that is of general interest gets
released under your favorite open source license.  Anything specific
to proprietary technology in a particular machine wouldn't be as
usefull to others anyway, so don't release that part at all.

Just some thoughts from someone who's played with EMC but is not
currently running it.

Chris

> Public domain is OK with me. I like GPL very much, but
> I don't think it is the best copyright for a project
> like EMC. Six years ago I worked for a small machine
> tool company for four years. They needed a NC
> controller for their special machine. The controller
> had to work with their technologies. I couldn't have
> opened ALL the source code, because that would have
> revealed their secrets. There are many such small
> companies. They have technologies and special
> machines, but they have very few programmers. An
> open-source solution is great for them, but they need
> to keep their technolgies in secret in order to be
> able to compete with large companies. A large company
> don't need open source.
> 
> I have just read FSF's comments about various licenses
> at http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/license-list.html.
> But I can still not decide which license is good for
> EMC. Perhaps pulbic domain is already good enough for
> me.

-- 
Christopher C. Stratton, stratton-at-mdc.net
Instrument Maker, Horn Player & Engineer
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