how to declare a project's code as open source??
 

Hi, I have completed a project that I want to declare as open-source. Can someone please give me information on how to get this done in the right way??

Thanks alot!

binarE.

You can contact the Free Software Foundation (they might try to persuade you to give them the copyright, but then they control the license). I found this Licensing Howto, but it's a little data and doesn't look complete.

Make sure you understand and agree to the license you decide on. Then I think you just put a text file COPYING in with the package whenever you distribute it. If you choose the GPL, which is one of the more popular open source licenses, you might pay attention to the "GPL version 2 or newer" clause. With the GPL v3 coming out with some significant changes, you might decide that your code should be GPL v2 only (the linux kernel developers have for various reasons -- google about the GPL v3 and you'll get a lot of the arguments going on right now).

Googling open source licenses will give you several sites with comparisons of a fairly large number of the available open source licenses.

The GNU-GPL is the most well known license, but I would very carefully read it in it's entirety. A lot of legal opinions have repeatedly claimed that it is viral in nature, meaning that using software under it screws you over for making any money off the software in ANY fashion.
[ It isn't viral in nature, but it is the most restrictive open source license ]

The three I am most comfortable with are the CPL
[ Common Public License ]
BSD [ which is a modified MIT License ]
and one a friend has drawn up
CCD Copywrite.
[ essentially, it protects your copyright, but doesn't limit usage at all ]
the CCD Copywrite is:
http://ccd.apotheon.org/

since it's not listed anywhere at this time.
it isn't yet an official Open Source License.
Nor has it Officially been Released, but it is available for use under a work in progress status.