[License-discuss] [Osi] [General enquiries] Dual License for CC0

[Wilson, Andrew]

odie5533 at gmail.com writes:

> Hi. I see questions about CC0 and public domain dedication pop up all 
> the time on message boards. In the FAQ, it goes through why these 
> licenses are not currently OSI approved. I was wondering if you could 
> amend the FAQ to put forth the option that developers can dual license 
> their work as e.g. both CC0 and MIT. It seems a lot of people don't 
> know about this option, and it makes for a good middle ground for 
> those that want public domain, but also want to be sure they're 
> covered by OSI's approval system.

Not clear to my non-lawyer mind how these licenses could coexist, at least in a legal system like the US
where PD is recognized.  If the CC0 PD declaration is valid, how can the original copyright holder
then grant an MIT license to copyrights he/she no longer controls?

In a legal system where PD is not recognized, e.g. Europe, then the effective portion of CC0 is presumably not
the PD declaration but the permissive license.  As other posters have noted, that permissive license
is not perceptibly different in effect from MIT.

Andy Wilson
Intel open source technology center