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Discussion on: AMA with Heather Meeker, Open Source Licensing Expert (and Musician)

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obxvivien profile image
Vivien

Hi Heather,

two questions:

  1. Can you recommend a contributor's license template?

  2. just for fun: Is it correct that public domain is not officially "open source" (because it is not OSI-approved?)?

Thank you for doing this AMA! much appreciated ā¤ļø

Vivien.

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heathermeeker profile image
Heather Meeker

For a CLA, I usually use a modified and slimmed down version of the Apache CLA. They use two different forms -- individual and corporate, and I have combined them, and removed some of the Apache terms. I'm happy to share that form if you like, just send me an email. That having been said, there are lots of CLA forms, and they are mostly identical in substance. (BTW I don't think CLAs are necessary for projects with permissive licenses, because the CLA is nearly identical in substance to a permissive license.)

Question 2 is indeed a fun one. Public domain is not officially open source, because the open source definition describes a license. Some public domain dedications, like CC0 or (shudder) WTF, actually have license terms, too. That's because in some countries, theoretically you can't actually dedicate a copyrightable work to the public domain. (An example of the the overthinking mentioned above.) These documents have a fallback license, in case the public domain dedication is unenforceable. Actually the recent kerfuffle about CC0, BTW, is that it doesn't grant patent rights. But it would not be very rational to release code under CC0 if you had any patents on it that you wanted to actually enforce.

Thanks for the questions!