Gnu Licensing at the University of Texas at Austin
The new policy on the licensing of software written by faculty and
staff at the University of Texas at Austin may be read
here. Below is my understanding of one very simple path you can
take under this new policy to release software that you believe fits
within the guidelines of the policy under the terms of the Gnu General
Public License (GPL):
- 1. Read the GPL and insert it into your
software. The copyright holder's name should be the "University of
Texas at Austin". Of course, you should include your own name and
address below the copyright notice as the actual author and the one to
whom correspondence should be sent. For sample modifications to your
program, look here.
- 2. Write a (brief) letter to be signed by you and your
chairperson and to be sent to the chairperson of the Intellectual
Property Committee (IPC), currently Austin Gleeson in the Physics
department, saying that you think that release under the GPL is in the
best interests of the University and the public. The Policy says that
it is ok to release software when the "benefits from public disclosure
or dissemination are adequate consideration for any loss of the
potential commercial value of the software and, in general, that such
disclosure or dissemination is in the best interests of the University
and the public." It is a good idea to use this language or something
similar in your letter. Send the letter to the chairperson of the
IPC. In your letter, give a public ftp address from which the software
can be obtained or otherwise offer to make the software available to
the IPC. (Eventually, software released in this way may be made
available by the university from a central site, but I don't think
that has happened yet.) An example of such a letter, with blanks to
be filled in, may be found here
.
- 3. After sending the letter, release the software to whomever you
want. But realize that the recipient is then free to pass it on, and
so forth, under the terms of the GPL.
Robert S. Boyer
P. S. See also the January 19, 1996 Daily Texan article.