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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">From: </span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">License-discuss <</span><a href="mailto:license-discuss-bounces@opensource.org" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">license-discuss-bounces@opensource.org</a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">>
on behalf of "</span><a href="mailto:lrosen@rosenlaw.com" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">lrosen@rosenlaw.com</a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">" <</span><a href="mailto:lrosen@rosenlaw.com" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">lrosen@rosenlaw.com</a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">></span></div>
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="mso-bookmark:_MailEndCompose">>There are other important reasons besides "aging out" why the claims of copyright on parts of functional works like software are often denied. (See 17 U.S.C. 102(b), for example.) Aging out
isn't the only obstacle to copyright claims >that make the <u>copyright</u> aspects of FOSS licenses unenforceable while they remain
<u>contracts</u> to disclaim warranties. So when several here suggested that ALL FOSS WORKS probably contain public domain content, this is ANOTHER >example not involving aging.
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="mso-bookmark:_MailEndCompose">>The USG and ARL are not unique. Public domain is what it is for software works for everyone here (and probably abroad too). A unique FOSS license isn't necessary to "protect copyrights" in
public domain works. Almost any FOSS >contract will work to protect the licensor.
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The point is that the code fond in other FOSS WORKS that are in the public domain is generally not significant enough to contain an implantation of a software patent. This is why your shakespeare example isn’t valid and why the USG and ARL could be unique.
Software in the public domain have neither an implicit or explicit patent grant. Which should be a concern of ARL.</div>
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OSS licenses that do not explicitly handle the public domain case does not apparently meet the needs of the ARL (and probably the rest of the USG) because there may be a issue when no copyright exists.</div>
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That said, it occurs to me that ARL would not want to use an Apache style patent grant but a ECL v2 style grant. Otherwise someone at the DOE could release source code that implements a patent owned by ARL that they are licensing to industry for royalties.
Or vice versa.</div>
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<div><font face="Calibri">Under 15 US Code § 3710c a.1.A.i</font></div>
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<div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Calibri">The head of the agency or laboratory, or such individual’s designee, shall pay each year the first $2,000, and thereafter at least 15 percent, of the royalties
or other payments, other than payments of patent costs as delineated by a license or assignment agreement, to the inventor or coinventors, if the inventor’s or coinventor’s rights are assigned to the United States.</font></span></div>
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According to this site: http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9004.html</div>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: medium; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> It is estimated that the government has title to over 30,000 patents and annually files several
thousand new applications. </span></div>
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<div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 254, 254);"><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">Ugh. I’m perfectly happy to give away my own code and patents when I choose to do so but I would be very unhappy if I accidentally gave away someone </font></span><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">else’s
work and cost them thousands of dollars of lost royalties.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">My assumption is that the USG is treated as a single legal entity for patent and copyright purposes which may be incorrect. Even if not, one would assume that ARL would be treated as part of the Army and could impact any
other Army lab, FFRDC, UARC or </font><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">university and other organizations conducting research for the Army.</font></div>
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