[License-review] Review for the NIST Software License

Tue Sep 30 15:22:02 UTC 2025

Hi reviewers,

I reached out to those in charge of the NIST software policy and will meet with them and our Office of Chief Council to discuss and bring your questions to them. We'll hopefully get answers for moving forward in regards to both sides.

Note that since a US Government shutdown is imminent and at this moment likely, progress on the NIST side may take some time and I won't have email access during the down time. Hopefully it won't happen or be too long, but if you need to table/withdraw the review after a time period feel free to do so and we can try again when possible.

Lucas

From: Carlo Piana <carlo at piana.eu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2025 4:58 AM
To: License submissions for OSI review <license-review at lists.opensource.org>
Cc: Hale, Lucas M. (Fed) <lucas.hale at nist.gov>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [License-review] Review for the NIST Software License

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Lucas,

if I understand correctly, this should not technically be a license, since the software is not subject to copyright in the USA as far as it has been created by NIST employees. I think that if software is not given protection in the state of first publication is not protected even elsewhere, under the Berne Convention, therefore this is basically a dedication to public domain, whose primary scope is the liability disclaimer(s).

However, the "provided that you keep intact this entire notice" is technically (US lawyers please help) a condition, that means this is a license with conditional grant, after all. The other condition-like provision uses the verb "should", which is more of an invite,  at face value.

I do not see anything that would prevent this text to be approved, maybe in the "non reusable" category. But could NIST give us their position on the above discussion, for the sake of clarity, please?

Cheers

Carlo (in his personal provisional view and capacity)

________________________________
Da: "Hale, Lucas M. (Fed) via License-review" <license-review at lists.opensource.org<mailto:license-review at lists.opensource.org>>
A: "license-review at lists.opensource.org<mailto:license-review at lists.opensource.org>" <license-review at lists.opensource.org<mailto:license-review at lists.opensource.org>>
Cc: "Hale, Lucas M. (Fed)" <lucas.hale at nist.gov<mailto:lucas.hale at nist.gov>>
Inviato: Lunedì, 29 settembre 2025 22:13:02
Oggetto: [License-review] Review for the NIST Software License
Hi OSI reviewers!

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.

The license complies with the Open Source Definition, including the OSD 3, 5, 6 and 9 criteria.

There are numerous projects using the NIST software.  For instance, there are 1.3K repositories at https://github.com/usnistgov that should all be using the license.  As such, it falls under the legacy category.

The NIST license is also listed on the main NIST website https://www.nist.gov/open/copyright-fair-use-and-licensing-statements-srd-data-software-and-technical-series-publications, and has an SPDX listing https://spdx.org/licenses/NIST-Software.html. Under both sites, it is titled "NIST Software License"

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Sincerely,

Lucas Hale

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