[License-discuss] Advice for submitting a new license

Fri Aug 7 16:07:57 UTC 2026

Hi AMOGUSForever,

I took a look at your draft of the *Universal Public Domain License 1.5.2*
and made a few improvements that you might want to consider. I think they
help clarify the intent of the license and avoid a few potential legal
issues.

Of course, I'm *not a lawyer*, and *this is not legal advice*. These are
just drafting suggestions based on my own understanding, so please review
them carefully and use whatever you think is appropriate.

I've included the complete revised draft below.
------------------------------
The Universal Public Domain License 1.5.2

*Public Domain Dedication*

Copyright © [year] [Creator]

*NO RIGHTS RESERVED!*
§1. Waiver

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Creator irrevocably
dedicates the Work to the public domain and waives all copyright and
related rights, together with any patent rights owned or controlled by the
Creator to the extent necessary to permit unrestricted use of the Work,
worldwide.

Without limitation, this dedication and waiver includes the right to
reproduce, use, copy, modify, adapt, merge, publish, distribute, perform,
display, communicate, translate, sublicense, and sell the Work:

   -

   for the maximum duration permitted by applicable law, including any
   future extensions;
   -

   in every present and future medium or format;
   -

   for any purpose whatsoever, including commercial purposes;
   -

   all moral rights, to the extent they may be waived or not asserted under
   applicable law;
   -

   all neighbouring or related rights;
   -

   all publicity, privacy, and personality rights relating to any person
   depicted in the Work;
   -

   all rights protecting against unfair competition relating to the Work;
   -

   all rights protecting the extraction, dissemination, use, and reuse of
   data contained in the Work;
   -

   all database rights and similar rights under any jurisdiction; and
   -

   all equivalent or corresponding intellectual property rights now
   existing or hereafter created under any applicable law or treaty.

For the avoidance of doubt, trademark, service mark, trade name, trade
dress, and other rights identifying the source of goods or services are
neither waived nor licensed under this License.

The same dedication and waiver apply to this License document itself.
§2. Permissive License Fallback

If, under applicable law, the public domain dedication or any waiver
described in Section 1 is ineffective, invalid, or unenforceable, in whole
or in part, each rights holder hereby grants every recipient a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable license to exercise all
rights that the rights holder has, or may hereafter acquire, in the Work
under any intellectual property rights identified in Section 1, including,
without limitation, the rights to reproduce, use, copy, modify, adapt,
merge, publish, distribute, perform, display, communicate, translate,
sublicense, and sell the Work, for any purpose, including commercial
purposes.
§3. Disclaimer

THE WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
CREATOR, ANY CONTRIBUTOR, OR ANY COPYRIGHT, RELATED RIGHTS, OR PATENT
HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES, OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE WORK OR THE USE OF OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE WORK.
§4. Severability

If any provision of this License is held to be invalid, illegal, or
unenforceable under applicable law, that provision shall be reformed or
enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law, and if it cannot be so
reformed or enforced, it shall be severed from this License without
affecting the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.
------------------------------

I hope some of these changes are useful. Feel free to use, modify, or
ignore any of them as you see fit. and consult with lawyer

Best,

Subham mahesh

On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 at 21:20, subham mahesh <indsubham6 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, I read your draft license, and I think the waiver is far too broad. As
> written, it could easily backfire and, in my view, isn't practical to use.
>
> One issue is that the license appears to waive trademark rights, which
> doesn't make sense. Trademark law is fundamentally different from copyright
> and patents. The whole purpose of a trademark is to preserve the exclusive
> right to use a name or mark in commerce. Most open source and
> source-available licenses don't waive trademark rights; instead, they
> simply state that the license does not grant any permission to use the
> licensor's trademarks.
>
> More broadly, the waiver language is so expansive that it could be
> interpreted as a general waiver of the licensor's rights, rather than a
> limited waiver for a specific purpose. That creates unnecessary ambiguity
> and could produce unintended legal consequences.
>
> This isn't legal advice, but I think the waiver should be narrowed
> substantially and should expressly exclude trademark rights rather than
> attempting to waive them.
>
>
> On Fri, 7 Aug, 2026, 7:40 pm AMOGUSForever via License-discuss, <
> license-discuss at lists.opensource.org> wrote:
>
>> Hello, i wanted to submit a license for license review called UPD
>> I have tried to submit the review directly to OSI license review list but
>> got rejected by the moderator saying that i should look at
>> https://opensource.org/licenses/review-process.
>> However i do not see any issues about my review and didn't got any other
>> advice from the moderator.
>> (in case you want to check its attached to the email)
>>
>> Please post any possible improvement for both review text (to resubmit)
>> and the license text itself so that it gets ready for license review.
>>
>> Thanks
>> _______________________________________________
>> The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not
>> necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the
>> Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
>>
>> License-discuss mailing list
>> License-discuss at lists.opensource.org
>>
>> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/attachments/20260807/9d9f36be/attachment-0001.htm>