[License-discuss] Pre-submission discussion: Zero-Clause BSD with Patent Grant (0BSD-P)

[Михаил Чернов]

Subject: Pre-submission discussion: Zero-Clause BSD with Patent Grant
(0BSD-P)

Hello,

I am considering submitting the Zero-Clause BSD with Patent Grant (0BSD-P)
to OSI for approval. Before doing so, I would like to get feedback from the
community.

I am not a lawyer, and I am not trying to draft a novel license from
scratch.
What I am proposing is a strict combination of two already-approved
licenses:
the Zero-Clause BSD License (0BSD) and the patent grant from the
BSD-2-Clause
Plus Patent License (BSD-2-Clause-Patent).

The gap I see is this: no OSI-approved license currently combines zero
attribution requirements with an express patent grant.

Today, a developer who wants to release code without any attribution
obligation has two OSI-approved options: 0BSD and MIT-0. Neither of them
contains a patent grant. A developer who wants patent protection has options
like BSD-2-Clause-Patent and Apache-2.0, but both require attribution, and
Apache-2.0 additionally includes a patent termination clause that makes it
incompatible with GPLv2.

This means that for small utilities, scripts, generated code, or similar
artifacts where attribution is impractical or undesirable, there is no
OSI-approved way to also grant patent protection. The 0BSD-P is meant to
fill
exactly that gap.

The license text is a direct combination of two approved texts. The
permissive
paragraph is taken verbatim from 0BSD. The patent grant paragraph is taken
from BSD-2-Clause-Patent, with one adaptation: references to "contributor"
and
"Contribution" have been removed, because 0BSD has no conditions that would
create a contributor in the legal sense. The patent grant remains
irrevocable
and does not include a termination clause, which preserves the GPLv2
compatibility that BSD-2-Clause-Patent is known for.

I have attached the full text. I would appreciate any feedback, especially
on:

1. Whether this gap is real and worth filling.
2. Whether the combination is correct.
3. Whether there are any concerns about OSD compliance.

Thank you for your time.
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Zero-Clause BSD with Patent Grant (0BSD-P)
Version 1.0

Copyright (C) YEAR by AUTHOR EMAIL

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
purpose with or without fee is hereby granted.

Subject to the terms and conditions of this license, the copyright holder
hereby grants to those receiving rights under this license a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except
for failure to satisfy the conditions of this license) patent license
to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer
this software, where such license applies only to those patent claims,
already acquired or hereafter acquired, licensable by the copyright holder
that are necessarily infringed by this software alone or by combination of
this software with the work to which such software was added.
The patent license shall not apply to any other combinations which include
this software.
Except as expressly stated above, no other rights or licenses from the
copyright holder are granted under this license, whether expressly, by
implication, estoppel or otherwise.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH
REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT,
INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.