Public domain software is not open-source?

[Alexander Terekhov]

On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 6:02 PM, Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com> wrote:
>
> 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

I suggest that you write an article explaining how public domain
software can be "re-used" under a copyright license stating for
example that "This Open Software License (the "License") applies to
any original work of authorship (the "Original Work") whose owner (the
"Licensor") has placed the following licensing notice adjacent to the
copyright notice for the Original Work: ..." and purporting to grant
something that doesn't belong to the owner (the "Licensor") because
former original owner put it into public domain. I suspect that it
will be no less exciting than your piece on public domain analogizing
waiver or abandonment of copyright to dumping of personal property in
the public highway. :-)

regards,
alexander.

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