[License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: Wrapping OSI licenses (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Thorsten Glaser]

Hello Karan,

>However, it creates an unlevel playing field; the same code has
>different protections depending on where it is in the world. In the
>US, the license may be considered to be null and void because the
>copyright clauses can't be enforced, but in the rest of the world that
>might not be true.

yes, that’s sad, but it’s the law. You can’t change that with licences.
Licences come from the existence of copyright protection in the first
place.

It’s the same whenever scope of protection differs between countries.
Government works are one such thing; the other, much less rare, is
when the author is dead for, say, 50 but not 70 years, or 70 but not 100
(which AFAIK is the protection period in Mexico). Public domain dedica‐
tions are another.

The best thing you can, AFAICT, do, is to say “if there’s copyright,
we claim it, and here’s a licence; if there’s not, we don’t claim any”.

In fact, the thing you described which I quoted above is, combined with
a liberal OSS licence such as MIT or MirOS, the best thing that one can
hope for.

Scope: I’m not discussing contractors, only PD government works, and I
deliberately limit my comment to copyright-related rights, not patents.

bye,
//mirabilos
-- 
I believe no one can invent an algorithm. One just happens to hit upon it
when God enlightens him. Or only God invents algorithms, we merely copy them.
If you don't believe in God, just consider God as Nature if you won't deny
existence.		-- Coywolf Qi Hunt