[svlug] Fedora or Ubuntu for novis

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Alan DuBoff (aland at softorchestra.com):

> OTOH, I do support his efforts, I just wish that there was such 
> a thing as free code, in it's pureist form, and it really gets 
> down to how fundamentally incorrect how the patent and copyright 
> laws are created and enforced.

Patent encumbrances aside, the closest you're going to get is either
a genuinely and unambiguously public domain work -- which is rarer than 
most people assume -- or one with a "Copyright (C) 2008 Owner Name. Do
whatever you want with this work" licence attached.

> The NSA licenses their code in the public domain, with no copyrights
> on it. I like that style myself.

No, they do _not_.  They have no choice in the matter, as such
(Federally-created) works never had any copyright title in the first
place.  No property interest, ergo no possibility of licensing of any
kind.  Per 17 U.S.C. 105:

   Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work
   of the United States Government, but the United States Government is
   not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it
   by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.

I explain this matter, and the reason why "Copyright (C) 2008 Owner
Name. Do whatever you want with this work" is the closest you can
unambigiously come, on a non-Federal work subject to an unexpired
copyright period, here:
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Licensing_and_Law/public-domain.html