Karl, those are excellent FAQ entries! They summarize quite well the non-consensus reached on our lists. Good work! /Larry
Lawrence Rosen Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com) 3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482 Cell: 707-478-8932 > -----Original Message----- > From: Karl Fogel [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 5:54 PM > To: [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: [License-discuss] New OSI FAQ items posted about Public Domain > and CC0. > > (This seems appropriate for both license-discuss@ and license-review@, > so > I'm posting it in both places.) > > I've been seeing an increasing number of inquiries about the public > domain and open source, and about CC0 and open source. A few of those > inquiries have come here, but I'm also getting them elsewhere. > > So I've tried to formulate good answers: > > http://opensource.org/faq#public-domain > http://opensource.org/faq#cc-zero > > I hope I've reflected the general consensus of the License Review > committee accurately, not made any legal mistakes, etc. I'd appreciate > feedback on these. > > The "public domain" entry is complex. It felt wrong to simply say that > PD is not open source, when it clearly exhibits most or all of the > important properties of Open Source and is at least capable of meeting > the OSD; on the other hand, it is not a license and therefore cannot be > OSI-approved, and it has some portability problems. So I've tried to > express all of that in the answer, and recommend that people use > OSI-approved licenses wherever possible. > > The CC0 entry is more straightforward, but also would benefit from peer > review. > > Please hold the flamethrowers, anyone who might be tempted to flame, > and > remember that these are inherently contentious and complicated > subjects! > It would be easier for the OSI to just say nothing on the topics :-), > but silence on these questions would not serve our mission very well. > > Thanks, > -Karl > _______________________________________________ > License-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss _______________________________________________ License-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss
