[License-review] Submitting CC0 for OSI approval

[Bruce Perens]

On 02/17/2012 08:38 PM, John Cowan wrote:
> Patents are *always* an issue with open source. Unless you have a 
> patent disclaimer or license from every person or corporation on the 
> planet, you are always open to being sued for infringement.
Agreed.

The question is, what should OSI do about it in approving licenses? I 
can't believe it's still tenable to ignore the problem. Requiring an 
explicit patent grant in new licenses /might/ be over-reaching. Being 
sensitive about disclaimers of patent grants and their potential to harm 
developers is probably appropriate. Understanding the presence of the 
implied estoppel is necessary. Being sensitive to things that might not 
carry that estoppel is probably appropriate.
> Similarly, there is always a risk of copyright recapture under U.S. 
> law, which explicitly cannot be contracted or disclaimed away. 
You mean in the case of material that was dedicated to the public 
domain? I've seen some of this in state law, and there have been various 
efforts to bring material that found its way into the public domain, 
such as the film "It's a Wonderful Life", back under ownership.

Bruce Perens:


> So, I am reading this as either an abandonment of rights OR acquiescence, but not both.
John Cowan:

>  Patent rights are not abandoned under either circumstance: a dedication to the public domain of the copyright does not apply an abandonment of relevant (or irrelevant) patent rights.

Right. I should have written that it was an abandonment of copyright rights, not an abandonment of rights.

	Thanks

	Bruce


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