Posts tagged code

Clear and to the Point: Independent Software Companies

Mission Statement

“Software should not just be useful, it should be so easy to use that it’s actually fun. It has to work right. It shouldn’t require you to know anything that it can figure out for itself. It shouldn’t have features you won’t use cluttering up the interface. It should have a narrow focus and do a good job at the stuff it does do, and work well with other programs that do other tasks. It should allow you to do simple things very quickly without learning anything and yet still allow you to do more complex things when you’re ready.”

The Omni Group (sources: Diigo, Indie Fever)

License Agreement

“This is where the bloodthirsty license agreement is supposed to go, explaining that EasyFlow is a copyrighted package, sternly warning you not to pirate copies of it and explaining, in detail, the gory consequences if you do.

We know that you are an honest person, and are not going to go around pirating copies of EasyFlow; this is just as well with us since we worked hard to perfect it and selling copies of it is our only method of making anything out of all the hard work. For your convenience EasyFlow is distributed on a non copy-protected diskette and you are free to do what you want with it (make backups, move from machine to machine, etc.) provided that it is never in use by more than one person at a time.

If, on the other hand, you are one of those people who do go around pirating copies of software you probably aren’t going to pay much attention to a license agreement, bloodthirsty or not. Just keep your doors locked and look out for the HavenTree attack shark.”

HavenTree Software Limited (sources: Wikipedia, WebCite)

Disclaimer

“We don’t claim EasyFlow is good for anything - if you think it is, great, but it’s up to you to decide. If EasyFlow doesn’t work: tough. If you lose a million because EasyFlow messes up, it’s you that’s out the million, not us. If you don’t like this disclaimer: tough. We reserve the right to do the absolute minimum provided by law, up to and including nothing.

This is basically the same disclaimer that comes with all software packages, but ours is in plain English and theirs is in legalese.

We didn’t really want to include any disclaimer at all, but our lawyers insisted. We tried to ignore them but they threatened us with the attack shark (see license agreement above) at which point we relented.”

HavenTree Software Limited (sources: Wikipedia, WebCite)

Licencia Pública de No seas un capullo

Si buscas una licencia pública que sea muy permisiva y que a la vez te permita parar los pies a los oportunistas entonces deberías considerar la “Licencia Pública de No seas un capullo” (traducción al español de la original “Don’t be a Dick Public License)”, que se situaría entre la ultrapermisiva WTFPL y otras más elaboradas como GPL, MIT, etc.

Me sumo a la causa aportando esta traducción al español:

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