Move to public domain #135

benbalter · 2013-08-25T16:48:40Z

Right now the project as originally published is a work of the United States government and thus is not subject to domestic copyright protection. Subsequent non-government contributors retain their copyright and license their work under either the MIT or CC-BY licenses for code and text respectively. This pull requests is intended to facilitate a discussion on the desirability of moving the project entirely to the public domain.

Issues to discuss

Will a requirement that contributors waive all rights discourage (chill) casual contributors?
Contributor friction added by using a non-standard licensing scheme
Standard-setting implications beyond this project
If public domain is so great and all that, why isn't all non-commercial open source software public domain?
International copyright (e.g., if another government wants to fork and use?) @david-a-wheeler?
Dedication of current ©️ holders rights
Obligatory OGC review because 🔨

Current ©️ holders

If you would like to manifest your intent to relinquish all copyright claims to your prior contributions to the project, both code and text, under the terms described in this pull request, please reply with (at least) a 👍 (or a 👎 if you would prefer not to do so... which is your choice).

🇺🇸 Contributors

List built using this simple script and the GitHub Contributors API. I checked off those contributors who I knew to be government employees... please let me know if I was over inclusive in any case.

Thoughts?

jpmckinney · 2013-08-25T16:51:42Z

👍

benbalter · 2013-08-25T16:52:02Z

Some more explicit CC's due to anti-spam restrictions: @listrophy, @calvinmetcalf, @jedsundwall, @acouch, @tauberer, @leahbannon, @lourinaldi, @meiqimichelle, @Dotmike, @GUI

benbalter · 2013-08-25T16:52:18Z

...and @pborreli, @wilhelmbot, @dsmorgan77, @jhawk28, @nice-giraffe, @pschweitzerusgsgov, @russellpwirtz, @scor

pborreli · 2013-08-25T17:16:18Z

👍

GUI · 2013-08-25T17:17:45Z

👍

JoshData · 2013-08-25T17:22:41Z

👍

dsmorgan77 · 2013-08-25T17:51:45Z

👍

mhogeweg · 2013-08-25T18:38:32Z

👍

nice-giraffe · 2013-08-25T18:43:12Z

👍

lourinaldi · 2013-08-25T18:59:13Z

👍

scor · 2013-08-25T19:35:41Z

👍

meiqimichelle · 2013-08-25T21:20:42Z

👍

calvinmetcalf · 2013-08-25T22:03:26Z

👍

mikeendale · 2013-08-26T01:56:46Z

👍

willpugh · 2013-08-26T07:37:28Z

+1

On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Mike Endale [email protected]:

[image: 👍]

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DruidSmith · 2013-08-26T11:24:06Z

👍

jhawk28 · 2013-08-26T11:26:51Z

👍

listrophy · 2013-08-26T14:20:43Z

👍

russellpwirtz · 2013-08-26T17:40:41Z

👍

david-a-wheeler · 2013-08-26T22:19:50Z

I think dedicating the textual material to the public domain is a very reasonable idea.

Historically it has been challenging to dedicate works to the public domain in some jurisdictions; see http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0 if you want some of the detail.

However, there's a solution: the Creative Commons CC0 license. Just dedicate the material using CC0 as the "license" and you're all set. Go here for the details and steps for using it:
http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/

Note: I actually recommend the MIT license, not CC0, for software. The MIT license provides a minor shield against lawsuits that the CC0 does not provide. That said, it's the authors' choice of what to do.

waldoj · 2013-08-26T22:24:20Z

David, government works (debatably) can't be CC0, as they are devoid of any copyright protection. The idea here, as I understand it, is to ensure that government contributions to this website are under the legally appropriate terms, and that means that private contributions must be at the same level, which is to say public domain.

benbalter · 2013-08-26T22:30:03Z

@david-a-wheeler what are your thoughts on the unlicense as included in this pull request? Same disclaimer of liability as MIT, but with an explicit public domain dedication?

@waldoj the argument, as I understand it, is that government works are public domain, but under the license regime as it stands now, non-government contributors retain their copyright, thus we'll have a government policy that is encumbered by commercial copyright restrictions, even if in this case, they are as least restrictive as they can be, while still using the common terms of the open source community, and do not affect the rights of users.

Here, the MIT/CC or License/CC0 do the same thing for the government contribution (to explicitly state what rights users have), but with the pull request, non-governemnt contributors will inject their work into the public domain, rather than retain copyright, even though, there is no legal implications of doing so from a user's perspective. They can do whatever they want with it either way (and under these terms, absent suing the author).

I know @konklone's a big proponent, and may be able to articulate the why better. I'm just the messenger here. 😄

david-a-wheeler · 2013-08-26T22:53:18Z

Actually, US government works do NOT need to be devoid of copyright protection. The prohibition only applies inside the US; the prohibition doesn't have anything to do with what happens outside the US. Which is why, if you want collaboration outside the US, you still need to declare a license or use some other way to ensure it's safe for everyone. This is one of those many legal technicalities that makes people angry at lawyers.

First, the TL;DR version: If you want something in the (copyright) public domain, use the CC0. That's what it is for.

Still here? Okay, let me try to explain.

A "work of the US government" - i.e., a work developed by a federal government employee as part of his official duties - does not (normally) have copyright in the US. But it CAN have an enforceable copyright outside the US. A lengthy explanation, from US government lawyers, is available from CENDI. See "Frequently Asked Questions About Copyright Issues Affecting the U.S. Government" (CENDI/2008-1 October 8, 2008), especially question 3.1.2 and what it leads to:
http://www.cendi.gov/publications/04-8copyright.html#312

You can go read the law and commentary yourself; it's at 17 USC 105 along with the related notes:
http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title17-section105&num=0&edition=prelim

This fact is even exploited by the NASA Open Source Agreement (the "NOSA"). I'm not a fan of the NOSA for other reasons, but my point is that NASA lawyers did consider this:
http://opensource.org/licenses/NASA-1.3

So if you want international collaboration, the legal status of the material needs to be clarified SOMEHOW. This is usually done by including some sort of license. Or a dedication that it's in the public domain (in the copyright sense).

A few warnings:

All of this only applies to US federal government employees. If a contractor writes something, it's the contract that governs. I wrote a paper about what happens next: https://www.thecsiac.com/journal_article/publicly-releasing-open-source-software-developed-us-government#.UhvZwT_3PNo
It turns out that there are some weird special cases. In some cases some government employees (in the US Postal Service or NIST at least) CAN create works that are copyrighted inside the US (as well as outside it) when they do something as part of their official duties.
The term "public domain" turns out to have 2 conflicting definitions. Usually people mean "copyright public domain", that is, it effectively has no copyright limitations and you can do what you want. But export control laws and regulations also use the term "public domain", which I'll call "export control public domain". Export control public domain just means "available to the public, possibly for a fee". So Microsoft Word is public domain (in the export control sense), and is NOT in the public domain (in the copyright sense).

Oh, usual caveat: I'm not a lawyer, not your lawyer, and not a government lawyer. But I can point you to stuff lawyers have written!

andrew-wolfe · 2013-08-27T12:24:48Z

👍

seanherron · 2013-08-27T15:12:00Z

Just as a note, I know Marina pulled in several changes in the past week but they don't appear reflected in your list (for instance, I made several commits but don't seem to be pulled in here).

MarinaNitze · 2013-08-27T15:18:05Z

@seanherron I think I incorporated them into the as-yet-not-accepted #44.

konklone · 2013-08-27T15:23:17Z

I'm definitely a 👍 (though I'm not a contributor), and am really happy to see this happening. I don't know if there's anything left for me to articulate, after @benbalter, @waldoj, and @david-a-wheeler's explanations.

I'm a big fan of the Unlicense for code, too -- we use them in each licensed project over at /unitedstates. This is great.

jedsundwall · 2013-08-27T15:49:35Z

👍

benbalter · 2013-08-27T16:24:05Z

@seanherron @MarinaMartin additional commits from the above-listed contributors are fine... the commit count was there mainly to be explanatory (and to show of my API-foo). 😄

If there are new contributors, we'll need to get their consent before this can be merged. Note, however, that this would not apply retroactively to any pending pull requests from new contributors. We'd have to either get them to 👍 here, or comment on the individual pull request and get their consent before merging.

If/once this pull request is merged, any contributor who submits a pull request submitted for that point forward will have constructive notice of the contribution terms.

haleyvandyck · 2013-09-20T22:27:29Z

fantastic. i think we are down to one final approval -- @jonasalmeida, what do you think?

JoshData · 2013-09-26T01:07:53Z

I emailed @jonasalmeida. However his commit ea528a1 is almost certainly not protected by copyright law since it's a one-word substitution. So I would heftily suggest we just move on.

@benbalter : Can we get your +1? :)

[Edit: @jpmckinney : Thanks for emailing acouch.]

benbalter · 2013-09-26T19:49:08Z

To summarize the above, excellent discussion (roughly):

Current status

The project content is currently licensed under CC-BY
Project code is currently licensed under the MIT license which allows copyright to remain with the contributor, and grants all usage rights to software consumers, under the condition that they disclaim liability
"It's a government work, so it must be public domain" is not a valid assumption on the internet where collaboration with non-domestic contributors is highly likely. Some means of clarifying downstream users' rights is necessary.

Content

There is a consensus to move from CC-BY to CC-0 for content

Code

Unlicensed is a perfectly valid public dedication for software and mirrors MIT in many ways
CC0 is a valid public dedication for both content and code, although notably more lawered (in length and review) than the Unlicense
Releasing code under MIT is functionally equivalent to a public domain dedication
Despite this functional equivalence, there is a community desire to prefer contributors relinquish all ownership claims to government policy or their means of publication

Editorial

Dicta

As with most technical challenges, I'd argue for pragmatism over purity
I'd argue that, in general if there's no practical difference between MIT and public domain, it's better to stick with what developers know and use, not what the government (or wonks) prefer or find morally superior
I'd argue that, in general open source software should prefer simple, common licenses over complex ones (again, optimizing for the developer experience and encouraging contribution)

Recommendation

Here, since this is a mixed content/code repository, rather than bifurcating or dual licensing the project, lets just CC0 the whole thing for simplicity sake.

Next steps

(assuming there's general consensus)

Resync the contributor list with any new contributors since the list was generated
Get new approval, as necessary
Update this pull request to reflect CC0 for all code and content

benbalter · 2013-09-26T20:02:37Z

seanherron · 2013-09-26T20:04:59Z

@rrbaker and @ultrasaurus are government employees, so we should be good on
that front

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 4:02 PM, Ben Balter [email protected]:

Needs a [image: 👍]

@jonasalmeida https://github.com/jonasalmeida (see abovehttps://github.com/Move to public domain #135#issuecomment-25137234
)

@rrbaker https://github.com/rrbaker

@ultrasaurus https://github.com/ultrasaurus

Updated List (using the same script as above)

@haleyvandyck https://github.com/haleyvandyck (70 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=haleyvandyck
)

@MarinaMartin https://github.com/MarinaMartin (32 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=MarinaMartin
)

@benbalter https://github.com/benbalter (20 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=benbalter
)

@jpmckinney https://github.com/jpmckinney (17 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=jpmckinney
)

@andrew-wolfe https://github.com/andrew-wolfe (9 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=andrew-wolfe
)

@jqnatividad https://github.com/jqnatividad (8 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=jqnatividad
)

@gbinal https://github.com/gbinal (6 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=gbinal
)

@DruidSmith (5 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=DruidSmith
)

@feomike (5 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=feomike
)

@stevenvdc (5 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=stevenvdc
)

@mhogeweg (5 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=mhogeweg
)

@willpugh (3 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=willpugh
)

@JoshData (2 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=JoshData
)

@philipashlock (2 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=philipashlock
)

@jonasalmeida (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=jonasalmeida
)

@listrophy (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=listrophy
)

@calvinmetcalf (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=calvinmetcalf
)

@danmunz (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=danmunz
)

@jedsundwall (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=jedsundwall
)

@acouch (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=acouch
)

@leahbannon (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=leahbannon
)

@lourinaldi (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=lourinaldi
)

@meiqimichelle (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=meiqimichelle
)

@Dotmike (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=dotmike
)

@MikePulsiferDOL (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=MikePulsiferDOL
)

@GUI (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=GUI
)

@nsinai (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=nsinai
)

@pborreli (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=pborreli
)

@rrbaker (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=rrbaker
)

@wilhelmbot (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=wilhelmbot
)

@rypan (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=rypan
)

@ultrasaurus (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=ultrasaurus
)

@dsmorgan77 (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=dsmorgan77
)

@jhawk28 (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=jhawk28
)

@nice-giraffe (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=nice-giraffe
)

@pschweitzerusgsgov (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=pschweitzerusgsgov
)

@russellpwirtz (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=russellpwirtz
)

@scor (1 contributionshttps://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/commits?author=scor
)

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benbalter · 2013-09-26T20:11:22Z

@rrbaker and @ultrasaurus are government employees, so we should be good on that front

Done. Unless there's any objection, I'd let the CC0 recommendation sit for a bit for others to weigh in, but I think once the pull request is updated, we should be able to 🚢 this.

jpmckinney · 2013-09-26T20:46:28Z

For my part, I've never had any issue with CC licenses. From my experience, people very, very rarely read the actual CC license text, and instead just read the official "human-readable summary" like http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ which is easier to read than most licenses.

In terms of impact on developer experience and encouraging contribution, personally, I've written nearly 200 pull requests on GitHub and I've never even checked what license the project was released under. But that's just me, and maybe most people actually make decisions about whether to contribute based on licenses (as opposed to, say, utility).

benbalter · 2013-10-01T15:48:44Z

@haleyvandyck et. al., when you reboot, I'd say this is 👍, and ideally should be the first pull request merged so that we don't have to retroactively seek a more permissive license / public domain dedication from additional contributors.

🏆 ✨ 🔓

NoahKunin · 2013-10-17T16:58:19Z

Ready for @haleyvandyck to close this epic and worthy PR down! I know some agencies (my own included) are raring to go on getting some public implementation done.

haleyvandyck · 2013-10-17T19:57:38Z

This is wonderful-- thanks so much everyone! Happy to make this the first real post-shutdown merged pull request 🏆

Move to public domain

…/project-open-data.github.io#135 for reasons why

first pass at removing licensing

b242aa7

benbalter added 2 commits September 26, 2013 16:41

update license, readme, and contributing for cc0

cd91783

swap unlicense for cc0

0363f25

benbalter mentioned this pull request Oct 3, 2013

Bring back CC0 github/choosealicense.com#61

Closed

haleyvandyck pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Oct 17, 2013

Merge pull request #135 from project-open-data/delicense

0c6fdfc

Move to public domain

haleyvandyck merged commit 0c6fdfc into master Oct 17, 2013

benbalter deleted the delicense branch October 17, 2013 20:31

JoshData mentioned this pull request Oct 17, 2013

Mention POD unitedstates/licensing#2

Closed

benbalter mentioned this pull request Oct 30, 2013

Mix of software and content? github/choosealicense.com#97

Closed

JoshData mentioned this pull request Nov 5, 2013

Add CC0 as a license github/choosealicense.com#126

Merged

artob mentioned this pull request Dec 9, 2013

unlicense.org and public domain unlicense/unlicense.org#14

Closed

benbalter mentioned this pull request Dec 29, 2013

License of the Jekyll gh-pages? jekyll/jekyll#1885

Closed

dvogel pushed a commit to dvogel/congress that referenced this pull request Feb 8, 2014

Switching from Unlicense to CC0, see cfpb/qu#94 and project-open-data…

e034e47

…/project-open-data.github.io#135 for reasons why

gbinal mentioned this pull request May 29, 2014

Action Needed: Confirmation from Project Leads 18F/open-source-policy#3

Closed

artob mentioned this pull request Sep 11, 2014

Add support for Unlicense c4milo/licentia#5

Merged

willnorris mentioned this pull request Oct 23, 2014

Upgrade the license to an open one gohugoio/hugo#201

Closed

moorepants mentioned this pull request Dec 3, 2014

Coding Standards for discussion and editing opensim-org/opensim-core#212

Merged

konklone mentioned this pull request Jan 29, 2015

Decision on proper application of CC0 artifacts 18F/open-source-policy#31

Closed

artob mentioned this pull request Aug 19, 2015

Should choosealicense.com include non-OSI approved licenses? github/choosealicense.com#281

Closed

mawww mentioned this pull request Jul 15, 2016

Contributor agreement / License mawww/kakoune#724

Closed

wking mentioned this pull request Jun 22, 2018

Document Unlicense compatibility issues? github/choosealicense.com#591

Closed

Move to public domain #135

Move to public domain #135

Conversation

benbalter commented Aug 25, 2013

Issues to discuss

Current ©️ holders

🇺🇸 Contributors

jpmckinney commented Aug 25, 2013

benbalter commented Aug 25, 2013

benbalter commented Aug 25, 2013

pborreli commented Aug 25, 2013

GUI commented Aug 25, 2013

JoshData commented Aug 25, 2013

dsmorgan77 commented Aug 25, 2013

mhogeweg commented Aug 25, 2013

nice-giraffe commented Aug 25, 2013

lourinaldi commented Aug 25, 2013

scor commented Aug 25, 2013

meiqimichelle commented Aug 25, 2013

calvinmetcalf commented Aug 25, 2013

mikeendale commented Aug 26, 2013

willpugh commented Aug 26, 2013

DruidSmith commented Aug 26, 2013

jhawk28 commented Aug 26, 2013

listrophy commented Aug 26, 2013

russellpwirtz commented Aug 26, 2013

david-a-wheeler commented Aug 26, 2013

waldoj commented Aug 26, 2013

benbalter commented Aug 26, 2013

david-a-wheeler commented Aug 26, 2013

andrew-wolfe commented Aug 27, 2013

seanherron commented Aug 27, 2013

MarinaNitze commented Aug 27, 2013

konklone commented Aug 27, 2013

jedsundwall commented Aug 27, 2013

benbalter commented Aug 27, 2013

haleyvandyck commented Sep 20, 2013

JoshData commented Sep 26, 2013

benbalter commented Sep 26, 2013

To summarize the above, excellent discussion (roughly):

Current status

Content

Code

Editorial

Dicta

Recommendation

Next steps

benbalter commented Sep 26, 2013

Needs a 👍

Updated List (using the same script as above)

seanherron commented Sep 26, 2013

benbalter commented Sep 26, 2013

jpmckinney commented Sep 26, 2013

benbalter commented Oct 1, 2013

NoahKunin commented Oct 17, 2013

haleyvandyck commented Oct 17, 2013