<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Hi,<br><br>Whether the NIST Software License operates as a copyright license depends on two points:<br>(1) national treatment for foreign works (Berne art. 5(2)); and<br>(2) whether the jurisdiction does NOT apply the rule of the shorter term down to the U.S. \u201cterm of 0 years\u201d for U.S. Government employee works.<br><br>Where the shorter-term rule is applied, NIST employee-authored code can end up with no copyright term; where it is not applied, the work may enjoy a normal term abroad. <br>The former includes the EU/UK/Japan; the latter includes Australia/Switzerland/China.<br><br>Separately, contractor-authored code assigned to the U.S. Government is a different category and may be protected.<br>In any case, recognizing the NIST Software License under the OSD seems plausible, but it would help if NIST clearly distinguished employee-authored from contractor-authored code across its repositories.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">2025/9/30 17:23 Hale, Lucas M. (Fed) via License-review <<a href="mailto:license-review@lists.opensource.org">license-review@lists.opensource.org</a>>:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-295471166885757461">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Hi OSI reviewers!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">I would like to submit the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Software license for review to be included in your list. This is the primary license that NIST staff are expected to use when
releasing software.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">The license complies with the Open Source Definition, including the OSD 3, 5, 6 and 9 criteria.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">There are numerous projects using the NIST software. For instance, there are 1.3K repositories at
<a href="https://github.com/usnistgov" target="_blank">https://github.com/usnistgov</a> that should all be using the license. As such, it falls under the legacy category.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">The NIST license is also listed on the main NIST website
<a href="https://www.nist.gov/open/copyright-fair-use-and-licensing-statements-srd-data-software-and-technical-series-publications" target="_blank">
https://www.nist.gov/open/copyright-fair-use-and-licensing-statements-srd-data-software-and-technical-series-publications</a>, and has an SPDX listing
<a href="https://spdx.org/licenses/NIST-Software.html" target="_blank">https://spdx.org/licenses/NIST-Software.html</a>. Under both sites, it is titled \u201cNIST Software License\u201d<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Thank you for your time and consideration!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Sincerely,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Lucas Hale<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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</div></blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Shuji Sado</div><div>Chairman, Open Source Group Japan<br><a href="https://opensource.jp/" target="_blank">https://opensource.jp/</a><br>En blog: <a href="https://shujisado.org/" target="_blank">https://shujisado.org/</a></div><div>Ja blog: <a href="https://shujisado.com/" target="_blank">https://shujisado.com/</a></div><div><br></div></div></div></div>