Jamis Buck, creator of the application deployment tool capistrano, announced earlier this week that he would release his next child, Gertrude, under the a modified version of the MIT license, similar to the one used by many rails projects, including the rails core itself. The modified license would most likely look something like the following:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this person and associated documentation files (the “Person”), to deal in the Person without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Person, and to permit persons to whom the Person is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions…

“It seemed like the right thing to do, ” Buck said in a recent telephone call to RR.com. “I’m very committed to the open source movement. Download Capistrano now!!”

Critics have called the decision “an abomination” and “an affront to the most basic of human dignities.” The liberal license would allow for almost unlimited traffic, modification, and sale of Gertrude by any party, and for virtually any reason.

Buck defends the position as “extrememly prudent, especially at the outset of a century that bears the promise of untold discoveries and challenges in the realms of cloning, intellectual property, and cyborging”