“Public Domain” licenses
January 18th, 2010 by HenTwo licenses that attempt to formalize putting something in the ‘public domain’:
- The Unlicense
- CC0 (surprisingly hard license to find the url for)
Welcome to the next frontier of license proliferation.
January 18th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I am getting very mixed messages about the concept of Public Domain. Certain people assert that it is impossible for me to disclaim copyright on a work. Others say, sure you can, and here’s how. On the one hand, it seems rational that I should be able to say “here, just take it.” On the other hand, this seems a way for me to legally say “that’s not my responsibility, it’s your problem now” and thus evade liability … assuming there ever was any to begin with.
Are these licenses legally binding in any meaningful sense? Are you implying, with your quotation marks, that there’s no such thing as the ‘public domain,’ as others have asserted?
And, behind all these questions, I find that I have an abiding perplexity as to why it’s this complicated. Can it really be this hard to say “do with this as you like”?
February 10th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
The quotation marks basically imply that I’m getting the same mixed messages you get.
“You can’t public domain” mixed with the obvious success of everyone who says they’re public domaining. These new licenses seem to be an attempt to resolve that - I’m just sad we have to have more than one of them.