[Toybox] license.html page update.

[Isaac Dunham]

On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 08:00:32PM -0500, Rob Landley wrote:
> I'm planning to check in the attached www/license.html update after the
> 0.4.8 release. Any comments?
> 
> This doesn't change the actual LICENSE file, it just adds some
> explanatory text at the end of the HTML page to go "This permission
> grant is functionally equivalent to placing the code in the public
> domain, it's just disguised as a BSD license to make people more
> comfortable, so you can still use it even if you're afraid of the public
> domain due to the 30 year FUD campaign against it. Although if you don't
> believe in public domain code why the heck are you using things like
> dropbear that's built around the public domain libtommath and
> libtomcrypt libraries? The source code in dropbear _says_ it's public
> domain in those two subdirectories, but if a random third party takes
> public domain code and relicenses it _then_ it's ok? What's wrong with
> you..."
> 
> Only, you know, more professionaly phrased.
> 
> Rob
> 
> (I might still be a slight bit grumpy at Bradley and
> http://gondwanaland.com/mlog/2014/04/11/commons-patents/ and such going
> "but public domain, that's SPOOKY" at every darn opportunity...)

While I'm quite in favor of the public domain and would not object if
all my contributions were released in the public domain with a clause
explicitly not requiring attribution, I tend towards pedantism regarding
what public domain is.
(That's partly because of the various packages that have nonsense
like "placed in the public domain under the GPL".)

So I would like to suggest one clarification in this line:
> <p>This essentially places the code into the public domain.

It seems that
 This essentially grants the same permissions as placing the code in the 
 public domain.

would be more technically correct, since the copyright is not
disclaimed/waived.
It would be my guess that for those who have given in to the FUD, this
might be slightly less alarming.

But in reality, I'm only being pedantic.

Thanks,
Isaac Dunham

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