Help choosing license for new projects

[Ben Finney]

Jake b <ninmonkeys at gmail.com> writes:

> I want:
> 1] Pretty much let anyone use it. Users do not have to include source
> code, as long as I get credit. (which I think normallly is a textfile
> with project url + name?)

The simplest effective license that requires nothing more that
attribution is “under the terms of the Expat license”
<URL:http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt>.

The terms are effectively the same as some of the MIT/X11 licenses, but:

* It's even shorter and simpler, while still being widely regarded as
  effective.

* The name “Expat license” is far less ambiguous, because MIT have
  released X11 under several different licenses, not all of them free.

> 2] (if it matters) I will be using different combinations of pyglet,
> pygame, wxPython, etc.

You'll need to check the license terms on anything that you combine your
work with, to see what the effective combination of terms will be.

> 3] I want the option to use my own code in something commercial at a
> later date.

All free software licenses are commercial licenses, by definition.
Preventing selling the work, or other commercial use, would make the
license terms non-free. So if you choose any free software license this
isn't a problem.

> Does #3 complicate things, or is fine when including author info?

You may be wanting to talk about making the work non-free (proprietary),
in which case you're on your own :-)

-- 
 \       “My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I |
  `\     may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not |
_o__)                                      believe it.” —Thomas Edison |
Ben Finney