If you want to make something "really free" (cf. What is free software?), and you don't want to make any restrictions to the use of your work, here is what to do:
Public domain is not a license, it is more a state for a work. When a license is applied to some work, it implies that the work is copyrighted and that the author has chosen the license. But the author can also choose to release his work into the public domain.
If the work is software code it can then be included in any other program and linked against if it is a library. Public domain also applies to other types of work, like documents, drawings, photos, sounds, music...
To release some work into the public domain, you must be the copyright holder of this work (in most cases this is the case if you are the author of that work). Then, the only thing you need to do is to say you release your work into the public domain.
We provide a generic public domain dedication text, for work that is NOT software. Of course, replace "<AUTHOR'S NAME>" by your name.
I, <AUTHOR'S NAME>, the author of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
This text can be put where you could put a license, so for program code you should include it at the beginning of the files you release into the public domain. Note that every contributor to a public domain program must agree to put his/her contribution into the public domain, the contributor must give up his/her copyright on the contributed code. For your program to be free software, you must also provide the source code. You could release your program into the public domain without giving access to the source code, but in that case your program would not be free software. This text contains a disclaimer that says you are not responsible for the damage that your program may cause. Replace "<AUTHOR'S NAME>" by your name.
I, <AUTHOR'S NAME>, the author of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
The BSD license got its name from the Berkeley Software Distribution UNIX-like operating system, created at the Berkeley University of California.
The license text we provide was written by the ISC (Internet Systems Consortium), and is equivalent to a two-term BSD license (the original BSD license without 3rd and 4th clauses). It is precisely called the "ISC license", and it is a BSD-style license. It is used as the default license in the OpenBSD operating system.
This license allows users to do whatever they want with the software, as long as the licence still appears in all copies, with the the author's name above it.
If you use this license, developers can use your code in their own software or link with it (if it is a library) no matter the license that applies to their software. They can make it free (for example using a BSD-style license as that one, or a "copyleft" license like the GNU GPL) or proprietary, they are not even obliged to give access to the source code.
The only thing people cannot do is put your BSD-licensed work into the public domain (as only the author, you, can do it), this means that if someone want to make a 100% pure public domain work, he won't be able to include your code.
Of course, nothing prevents him from releasing into the public domain his own work (in the rest of the software) if he accepts to include non-public domain (because BSD-licensed) work.
Remember that software licensed under the GNU LGPL, or the GNU GPL forbids using code licensed under them to be included in BSD-licensed software. So if you choose a BSD-style license (or public domain), you cannot include GPL or LGPL licensed code. It is also impossible to use a GPL-licensed library in a non-GPL project.
(The license text is in the public domain.)
Copyright (c) <YEAR> <NAME> Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
To apply a license to a piece of code, you must be the copyright holder of this code (in most cases this is the case if you are the author of that work).
For your program to be free software, you must also provide the source code.
To apply this license, copy its content (shown above) at the beginning of any file you want to license under it. Replace <YEAR> by the current year and <NAME> by your name. You may also include your e-mail address, example:
Copyright (c) 2007 first-name last-name <mailbox@domain>
If you continue your work and the year has changed, add new years with commas like that:
Copyright (c) 2007, 2008 first-name last-name
Many licenses are "BSD-style" licenses, meaning they give the same rights, even if they don't share the same name. Here is a non-exhaustive list of them:
$Id: licenses.cgi 207 2008-05-15 18:09:05Z almacha $
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