avsFilmCutter

some remarks about licensing and terms of use

I admire and applaud the efforts by those that promote the idea of free-ware and open-source free-software.  In fact I am very grateful to those that donate their time and skill to help me plaster the little face of my granddaughter onto my television screen.  I don't wish to criticize anyone’s ideas or efforts, it is just I refuse to adopt and use statements I do not understand, the effort put forth to write FilmCutter takes up enough of my time, I have no desire to play lawyer.

All that being said I have resently been made aware of another type of I guess ok open source license.  One that pretty much fits on one page and one which I basicly agree with.  That being "The New BSD License" as described by the "Open Source Initiative" http://www.opensource.org see the file "license.txt".

FilmCutter was written to make my life easier, making it available for others to use is a kind of a pay it forward thing, small as the contribution may be.

I want you to use the software if you find it useful, complain if you don't or not, your choice.  I can not grant you permission to brake the law, trust me, I can not do that.  You will regularly see the comment, "all rights reserved", it protects the author from your misuse.  I reserve the right to say stop using my software, this protects me.  Most things like this are unenforceable.  But if I had a wad of money someone could go after, statements like these may protect some of my wealth.

Laws like these where enacted to protect the insurance industry from higher losses.  They were then and are today.  They do not protect you the user or me, they only cost us money.

There is one other issue, the thought that only open-source free-software is good stuff.  avsFilmCutter is open source, I am not hiding anything, I have never refused to provide the source to someone who asked, in two years only four people have.  I do not double or triple the download size by offering the source with the binaries.  I don't wish to support the source code either, I have not a clue about other development environments.

It has been brought to my attention that because I know who has the software there is an implied restriction, there is none and because the new web host makes this easier, version 0.0.2.0 will be released open source with the source code available on the same page as the binaries.

One more thing, if you do not have a sense of humor, don't use my software.  I will at sometime or another most certainly offend you.  Please accept my hart felt apologies.

License_and_Terms.html.

Rant over.