Why I don't use a license

Open-source is what I do for a living.

The main point of a license AFAIK(*) is to

Either describe who may not copy or use in any way the Licensed Material
Either describe under which circumstances the licensee may use, copy and/or redistribute the Licensed Material
Or describe why such Material is completely free, and its derivatives shall remain so

Penguin 33,6 SebastienMigniot <|-- Penguin 48,90 (Produce Open-Source) 100,23 (Spread Wide) 339,23 (Hope Someone Use It) 255,80 Penguin --> (Produce Open-Source) (Hope Someone Use It) ..> (Produce Open-Source) "extend" (Produce Open-Source) ..> (Spread Wide) "include"

Money is not involved.

One may argue that money is always involved - it pays the bill. Money is not involved except for hosting or bandwidth costs. My current employer benefits of what I do as a passion actually.

SebastienMigniot 15 Knowledge 15 Computer 15 Employer SebastienMigniot-->Knowledge: use() SebastienMigniot-->Computer: saveSource() SebastienMigniot-->Computer: compile() SebastienMigniot<--Computer: executable SebastienMigniot-->Computer: runAndEnjoy() SebastienMigniot-->Knowledge: feedBack() Employer-->SebastienMigniot: imagineSoftware() SebastienMigniot-->Knowledge: use() SebastienMigniot<--Knowledge: … Employer<--SebastienMigniot: specifications

Only patenting remains

It wouldn't be fair to say I really use no licensing. Most of my work is published as MIT or LGPLv2. I mainly use licensing for the "Give credits to the author" feature. It's not (only ?) ego :

Let's imagine some Company(tm) find my work
Let's imagine Company(tm) likes it and use it in proprietary software
Then it could later on (a decade) claim that I stole its creation by publishing parts of its software on my site

So the basic idea behind licensing for an open-source coder like me is :
Don't let other seal legally a stealing.

As most artists do, I -as a coder- want people to actually discover, like and use my creations. But it is an issue to me if for some reason the Company(tm) tries to leash my creativity after exploiting it.

Sebastien 10,30 Sebastien:knowledge:Knowledge Sebastien:projects:Work* Valueable 184,10 Knowledge <|-- Valueable 170,60 Free 310,10 EverythingIsARemix <|-- Free 270,60 Work <|-- EverythingIsARemix 150,100 Work:source:String

So now what ?

Well, first thank you for reading. Really.

Frankly i haven't been fully honest with you reader, you are also part of the process. As a reader you may have noticed the small diagrams after each paragraph. Those paragraphs are built using - technically speaking :

HTML5 custom elements
A UML DSL in quasi-text
A Self-contained application

So as you are basically reading the document, it means it has to be stored, on your hard disk, in your browser cache, somewhere. That piece of storage is a proof of prior art. If at some point I need to prove that Company(tm) did not invent/own the diagramming tools I used, I may now contact (also) you to deliver such a proof.

As a final punchline let say I call this principle the Replicant because such "Document-Applications" were born out of my readings of Raymond Smullyan. And if you actually hit the save button above, you get a duplicate (both of the document, but also of the software (and its source :) ) animating it) You may even attach a file to this document, drag and drop elements inside it or from your Desktop into it, … and replicate again.

Bottom line

Real men just download their important stuff on FTP and let the rest of the world mirror it - LBT
L'humilité, c'est quand on se mouille - Sébastien Migniot