djb's position on licenses

[david nicol]

On Sun, 2004-02-08 at 22:04, Karl Schmidt wrote:

>  Seems like there was 
> a problem with the license for djbdns?

Near the bottom of http://cr.yp.to/softwarelaw.html Dr. Bernstein
explains as follows:

> Once you've legally downloaded a program, you can compile it. You can
> run it. You can modify it. You can distribute your patches for other
> people to use. If you think you need a license from the copyright
> holder, you've been bamboozled by Microsoft. As long as you're not
> distributing the software, you have nothing to worry about.

He provides the source code for free download and appears proud of
the almost two million send level domains serving their records with
tinydns ( http://cr.yp.to/surveys/dns1.html ). According to his
published statements he interprets the relevant United States federal
law to mean that you do not need a license to compile and run source
code that you have legally acquired.  DJB apparently believes that
the whole paradigm of needing a license before you can run a program
is in error and he does not appear to be about to encourage this
common mistake by declaring some kind of license terms.

Freshmeat rightly lists the license for DJBDNS as "freeware"
http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=djbdns&section=projects&x=0&y=0
with a link to a page defining the term.

-- 
david nicol
                                       Hands all over Western culture
                   Ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures