How do I distribute my software?

How should I declare copyright and license terms for software I distribute -- open source or closed source -- so that the license would be recognized by prevailing legal standards?

• What are the legal standards that govern associating a copyright declaration and license terms with a body of software open or closed source? Is it enough or is it necessary to register the software in some copyright registering agency? If it must be registered, is it necessary to register it in all countries? And is there a difference if the software is open source? The de facto standards appear to include declaring the copyright and license inline at the top of source code files and/or including a separate LICENSE or COPYING file declaring the license for a whole collection of files at the top level directory. But who's to say that the person who put those declarations there had the legal right to do so? What do statutes and case law have to say about it?

• Answer:

  If you are trying to protect against others using the code, you should not publish the source.  Rather, publish the binaries.  If you want to publish the code and have others use it (which open source license are good for), I recommend including a text file within the distribution that has the copyright notification and license included.  If it's a short license, you could also comment it into the source directly. One can claim copyright without registering with the USPTO.  Just add a copyright notice...