[License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: U.S. Army Research Laboratory Open Source License (ARL OSL) 0.4.0

[Richard Fontana]

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 04:19:31PM +0000, Christopher Sean Morrison wrote:
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> On Aug 16, 2016, at 11:43 AM, "Smith, McCoy" <mccoy.smith at intel.com> wrote:
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> CC0 gives a complete (to the extent permissible by law) waiver of copyright rights, as well as a disclaimer of liability for the "Work" (which is that which copyright has been waived). I believe that to be an effective waiver of liability, despite the fact that there is not copyright rights being conveyed. Does anyone believe that that waiver is ineffective?
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> Gee, if only legal-review had approved CC0 as an open source license, it would be a potential option. ;)
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> As it stands, the board's public position to not recommend using CC0 on software [1] due to its patent clause makes it problematic.

The point here though is the assumption ARL is apparently making, that
an effective warranty or liability disclaimer must be tied to a
(seemingly) contractual instrument. CC0 is evidence that some lawyers
have thought otherwise.

Based on this whole thread, I imagine that even if CC0 were
OSI-approved, ARL would find fault with it given that it seems to
assume that the copyright-waiving entity actually does own
copyright. (I have actually found CC0 attractive in some situations
where there is acknowledged uncertainty about copyright ownership.)


Richard