[License-review] Submitting CC0 for OSI approval

[Richard Fontana]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 02:34:14PM -0600, Christopher Webber wrote:
> By this email we (Creative Commons) are formally submitting CC0 for
> approval on the OSI license list.  
[...]
> Speaking personally, I believe that simplifying the "public domain
> tool with fallback license" space is a good thing, and would be useful
> for FOSS generally.  Conversely, I think CC0 on OSI's license list
> would be useful in that many code hosting platforms look to OSI's list
> when determining whether or not to list a license as an option... and
> I think it would be great if CC0 were listed more often in such places!

Hi Chris,

I was wondering if Creative Commons can comment on one provision in
CC0:

  No trademark or patent rights held by Affirmer are waived,
  abandoned, surrendered, licensed or otherwise affected by this
  document.

I am not sure whether there is precedent for an OSI-approved license
(at least, one that is, today, widely used) that explicitly reserves
all patent rights. Many licenses are silent on the issue, while
several relatively modern licenses include patent license grants of
certain sorts.

I'm not suggesting that CC0 does not meet the OSI definition, but I
believe this issue should be considered before OSI proceeds to
approval of CC0.

Thanks,
Richard