[License-discuss] Can OSI take stance that U.S. public domain is open source?

[Karl Fogel]

Richard Fontana <fontana at sharpeleven.org> writes:
>>   1) Have licenses out in the world that are OSD-compliant, and that
>> we informally agree are "open source", but that we don't certify.
>>      This will cause growing divergence between "what is open source"
>>      and "what the OSI has approved".  That would be very, very bad.
>
>I consider it important to understand, and acknowledge, that this
>divergence already exists in most people's minds (i.e. those people who
>have enough knowledge of what's going on in the real world).
>It exists in my own mind. 

Certainly, and in mind too.  But I'd always assumed that the divergence
exists mostly for the minority of people paying close attention.  I
could be wrong, and if I am, then perhaps (1) isn't so bad after all,
since we seem to be playing a valuable role even in that world.

It would still be useful to have a better answer on US-gov't-produced
PD software, though.