Re: [sqlite] philosophy behind public domain?

At 1:39 PM -0400 5/25/05, Chad Whitacre wrote:
>I am interested in the reasoning behind SQLite's dedication to the
>public domain vis-a-vis other copyright/licensing options (GPL, BSD,
>etc.) Is there any documentation available on this decision?
>
>I'm trying to form an opinion on software copyright/licensing issues and
>would appreciate any thoughts or leads. Thanks.

I'm wondering the same thing.

Moreover, in a discussion about open source software licenses I was 
part of a few weeks ago, it was brought up that making a work public 
domain was a very bad thing to do, because it opened up the author to 
a whole bunch of legal liability that they had no recourse from, 
which they wouldn't have if they retained their copyright but used a 
permissive license.  I think the gist was that the software couldn't 
have a disclaimer of liability if it is public domain, and so anyone 
could sue the author if something went wrong when using it.  I don't 
know how true this is or not, but would like to see it addressed in 
the answer.

-- Darren Duncan