DOS ain't dead

Hello everybody:

I´m going to release a program done by me under FREEWARE license.

Are there any problem if I release it in Google Sites? The point 11.1 of the conditions in the license is not very clear and it doesn´t like very much.

What is your opinion?

Thanks.

Section 11.1 of the Terms of Service governing Google Sites is replaced in its entirety by:

You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Service. By submitting, posting or displaying the Content you give Google a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through the Service for the sole purpose of enabling Google to provide you with the Service in accordance with its Privacy Policy.

Geesh, that sounds like a lotta lawyer talk! (And i'm no lawyer.) But i'll give you my non-professional personal reactions. My general impression of Google is that they're pretty cool (for example, the China/censorship/blocking situation).

It sounds to me like, overall, they're trying to cover their butts with the above policy statement. For instance, like if somebody puts something up on a Google page and then they try to get Google to cough up some royalties.

However... then you get to the "fine print". It seems like there's a lot of "if's" and "and's" in there which are so vaguely worded that no one could reasonably determine how they might be applied... at some time in the future.

Yes, you retain copyright... but do you retain control? "Caveat *post*-or"....

So now you don't have much more of a lead than you did before....

- Doug B.

The program is a "toy" (without importance or possible future profit), but I don´t like these ambiguities. I think they can be dangerous in other situation, maybe you can lose power or rights about one important work.

I´m going to upload two torrent to the page, and the program files will be in my computer.

> The program is a "toy" (without importance or possible future profit), but
> I don´t like these ambiguities. I think they can be dangerous in other
> situation, maybe you can lose power or rights about one important work.
>
> I´m going to upload two torrent to the page, and the program files will be
> in my computer.

Rob,

I recently released mTCP (my DOS TCP/IP code and applications) and chose Google to host it.

The terms and conditions that Google have are perfectly reasonable; you are agreeing to allow them to host your code. You are giving them the option to translate the pages to different languages, repackage the code, convey the code using different source control systems, etc. Basically you are giving them the right to host your code even in some ways that might not be obvious or invented yet. But you are not giving them the right to misappropriate it, and nor are they interested in that.

Google hosting gives you a home site, download bandwidth, a Wiki, a choice of source control (if desired) and issue tracking. It's a great resource.

And at least in the US and most civilized countries *you never* lose the copyright to your code if you don't intentionally hose yourself. For example, I released my code as GPL3. That means I granted other people a license under those terms and conditions - I myself am not bound by that license. So I can keep going back to my private repository, enhancing it, and even selling my own version if I wanted to. Some pretty large open source software works on this model, one of the best known being MySQL.

I can grant other people a license different than GPL for the same code if I so choose.

However, I can never revoke the right to use the code under GPL for what I released under the GPL. And if I'm not careful and I incorporate other GPL code into my code, I am bound by that license and must release any derivative changes. Which is perfectly fair and appropriate.

---
mTCP - TCP/IP apps for vintage DOS machines!
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP

Thanks by the answers