Public domain software is not open-source?

[Lawrence Rosen]

Nigel Tzeng wrote:

Public Domain software, when the source code is available, meets all of the
OSD requirements but it isn't under a OSI approved Open Source license since
there is no license.   However, public domain software can be re-used under
an OSD compliant license, so in practice the issue is moot.

 

That's a nice, clean summary. /Larry

 

 

  _____  

From: Tzeng, Nigel H. [mailto:Nigel.Tzeng at jhuapl.edu] 
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 7:43 AM
To: Ernest Prabhakar
Cc: License Discuss
Subject: RE: Public domain software is not open-source?

 

>Q.  Is Public Domain software also "Open Source"?

>Not really, since it is not under an OSD-approved license.  However, 
>truly public domain software can always be made available under an OSD 
>compliant license, so in practice the issue is moot.

I would rephrase to something like (assuming I'm correct):

Public Domain software, when the source code is available, meets all of the
OSD requirements but it isn't under a OSI approved Open Source license since
there is no license.   However, public domain software can be re-used under
an OSD compliant license, so in practice the issue is moot.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/attachments/20080303/23b634cb/attachment.html>