[Flac-dev] Should FLAC join Xiph?

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 12:20:53PM -0800, Russell O'Connor wrote:

> But in the end, it seems futile.  A big company like Microsoft has enough
> resources to reimplement libFLAC should they wish.  Then they can embrace
> and extend without worry about copyright.
> 
> So I would recommend a Public Domain ``license''.  I really don't
> understand why that choice isn't more popular among developers.

Releasing a program into the public domain means giving up copyright
entirely, so that the author has no control whatsoever over how it is
distributed.  For example, the BSD license allows all of the same
applications that would be possible with public domain software, but
requires that 1) the copyright notice remain intact, and 2) the names of the
contributors and the university may not be freely used to promote derived
products.

-- 
 - mdz