License: Difference between revisions

104 bytes added ,  24 November 2003
just a note on how crucial license questiona are
(what it is, why we care)
 
(just a note on how crucial license questiona are)
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A '''license''' is a legal contract that specifies the terms of use of something, like [[software]] or written [[content]] managed by its use.
A '''license''' is a legal contract that specifies the terms of use of something, like [[software]] or written [[content]] managed by its use.


There are many types of license.  Private corporations write them to their own specifications, and may vary them per customer as well as per product.  When a more predictable and easier to [[audit]] regime of contracts is required, there may be a [[parametric license]] applied with many "blanks" to fill in.[[Consortium license]]s and some [[open source]] regimes rely on these relatively heavily.  [[Shared source]] is also evolving in this direction.
There are many types of license.  Private corporations write them to their own specifications, and may vary them per customer as well as per product.  When a more predictable and easier to [[audit]] regime of contracts is required, there may be a [[parametric license]] applied with many "blanks" to fill in. [[Consortium license]]s and some [[open source]] regimes rely on these relatively heavily.


The [[free software]] licenses are unique in that they try to be "one size fits all".  This may be appropriate for very core and technically constrained elements such as an operating system, but few people think they apply well to all elements of a [[Distributed Consumerium|complex distributed system]].
The [[free software]] licenses are unique in that they try to be "one size fits all".  This may be appropriate for very core and technically constrained elements such as an operating system, but few people think they apply well to all elements of a [[Distributed Consumerium|complex distributed system]].
It is very essential to carefully choose the licenses used in implementation of [[Consumerium]] for system and content respectively. It will be difficult.
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