Why isn't there a "if I like you you can use it"

I like you @WalterBright you can use any of my stuff even if you get acquired

limagnolia 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Umm, there is. Basically, thats the default in most of the world. My recomendation if that is what you want to do, is to put a note in the readme and in LICENSE.txt that says "this project is copyright by me. If you want to use i, reach out to me and if I like you, I will give you a license". Then if you like someone, give them a written statement that you like them, and grant them permission to use your project(s), and under what terms, if any.

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surgical_fire 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I sort of like this. I wonder if it is enforceable.

"For my friends everything, for my enemies the law" software license.

	▲	ethmarks 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> I wonder if it is enforceable. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be. If a company has explicit written permission from the copyright owner granting permission to use that copyright, then they can use it. Also, it wouldn't be a special license. If you wanted to do a "For my friends everything, for my enemies the law" thing, you'd just set it as all rights reserved and add special note encouraging people to ask for permission to use it. Plus, copyright enforcement typically goes in the other direction. It's not about who you can sue, it's about who you can't. Licenses are just a way of specifying who you cannot sue. If you want everybody to use your project but don't want to bother with a license, you can make it all rights reserved (the legal default) and just not sue anybody. You could sue them if you wanted to (which is why nobody would ever use your code: because of the risk that you change your mind and sue them), but nobody is forcing you to.

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WalterBright 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Thank you kindly!

There's not a whole lot of point to acquiring Boost licensed software. Of course, they could always acquire me and pay me handsomely!