For Approval: NASA Open Source Agreement Version 1.1

[Lawrence E. Rosen]

> > You can do anything you want to with a public domain work 
> except try 
> > to assert a valid copyright on it, which is one of the incidents of 
> > the BSD or any other open-source license.  So, no.
> 
> So I have no right to create a derivative work of a public 
> domain work and release that derivative work under a license 
> of my choice?  For example, I can not take PD code and 
> incorporate it into Apache httpd? I must misunderstand what 
> public domain means, then.

What does the word "it" mean? :-) I think there is a confusion of antecedent
basis here. 

In the original sentence, John suggested that nobody can assert a copyright
on a public domain work. True. Its copyright has presumably expired (or
perhaps it is a US Government work in the United States). It reqires no
license at all to distribute a public domain work. 

Brian is also right. Anybody can create a derivative work of a public domain
work and distribute that derivative work under the Apache or any other
license.

/Larry Rosen

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