Can OSI specify that public domain is open source?

[Tom Callaway]

On 09/07/2011 03:04 PM, Karl Fogel wrote:
> Tom Callaway <tcallawa at redhat.com> writes:
>> For what it is worth, I wish you would not do so. Public Domain across
>> international lines is incredibly complicated and painful enough,
>> putting it on the OSI pages will amount to a sort of endorsement of it,
>> when this will simply create more heartburn when individuals in
>> countries who cannot legally abandon their copyright attempt to do so.
>>
>> If you must endorse something similar, consider explicitly stating that
>> individuals interested in putting a work into the public domain should
>> instead consider the Creative Commons Zero license, as that accomplishes
>> the same end result without the legal and international complications.
> 
> As I just mentioned in another reply, this will keep coming up for
> U.S. government works unless we answer it.

Well, your answer isn't even wholly correct. Unless you're prepared to
write a book's worth of legalese about dealing with Public Domain, I
would strongly suggest that you reconsider. Just because something is in
the Public Domain in the United States does not mean that it is no
longer under copyright in other jurisdictions and vice versa, and a
simple statement that "public domain is open source" is false in many cases.

~tom

==
Fedora Project