Unlicensing documentation and graphics

[kpihkala]

Hi,

thanks for creating the http://unlicense.org site and easy steps to
dedicate software to public domain. Soon, I hope to be able to release
a nice animation software to public domain.

I have a question about the public domain statement. It explicitly
talks about software: "This is free and unencumbered software released
into the public domain."

What about documentation, graphics and other resources coming with the
software? Can the same statement be used for them or should I use more
applicable statement, such as CC0?

Can I use the weaver mentioned at http://unlicense.org to get
contributors to dedicate docs, graphics etc to public domain? Again,
it talks about software. Should I use some other weaver?

Again, thanks for the web site and let's live in a free world :).

Cheers,
Kari

[Peter Saint-Andre]

On 9/29/10 11:05 AM, kpihkala wrote:
> Hi,
>
> thanks for creating the http://unlicense.org site and easy steps to
> dedicate software to public domain. Soon, I hope to be able to release
> a nice animation software to public domain.
>
> I have a question about the public domain statement. It explicitly
> talks about software: "This is free and unencumbered software released
> into the public domain."
>
> What about documentation, graphics and other resources coming with the
> software? Can the same statement be used for them or should I use more
> applicable statement, such as CC0?

IIRC, the Unlicense is specifically for software. Using CC0 for other
kinds of works seems best to me. I happen to prefer the simplicity of
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ but perhaps that isn't
honored outside the USA.

Peter

--
Peter Saint-Andre
https://stpeter.im/

[Arto Bendiken]

Terve Kari,

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:05 PM, kpihkala <kari.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
> thanks for creating the http://unlicense.org site and easy steps to
> dedicate software to public domain. Soon, I hope to be able to release
> a nice animation software to public domain.

Excellent, looking forward to it.

> I have a question about the public domain statement. It explicitly
> talks about software: "This is free and unencumbered software released
> into the public domain."
>
> What about documentation, graphics and other resources coming with the
> software? Can the same statement be used for them or should I use more
> applicable statement, such as CC0?

Yes, the phrasing is meant to apply broadly to the whole enchilada
that constitutes a piece of software. That usually does mean more than
the code itself, and would thus indeed include documentation and other
resources maintained in the same repository and distributed in the
same package. See the following for more details:

http://ar.to/2010/01/dissecting-the-unlicense

However, note that for resources that don't clearly constitute the
software itself, e.g. a repository containing the source material for
a website related to the software, I would not apply the Unlicense but
either just simply state that it is in the public domain ("no rights
reserved", or such) or more preferably use the CC-Zero license. See
for example:

http://github.com/bendiken/unlicense.org

> Can I use the weaver mentioned at http://unlicense.org to get
> contributors to dedicate docs, graphics etc to public domain? Again,
> it talks about software. Should I use some other weaver?

Same applies. If you believe it ought to be more explicit for your use
case, you should feel free to expand the wording in the waiver, for
example by inserting a parenthetical clause enumerating the types of
resources covered.

> Again, thanks for the web site and let's live in a free world :).

Amen to that ;-)

Best regards from sunny Spain,
Arto

--
Arto Bendiken | http://ar.to/