[darcs-users] releasing works into the Public Domain

[Trent W. Buck]

Eric Kow <kowey at darcs.net> writes:

>> +## Placed into the public domain by Ganesh Sittampalam, 2009
>
> Worth considering for the template.

Several lawyer-type hackers have told me that this does the Wrong Thing.
Here is the best of these explanations:

    http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Licensing_and_Law/public-domain.html

I have also been referred to the following license.  I do NOT vouch for
this license, as I've neither examined it nor discussed it with people
whose legal-fu I trust.

    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

I just noticed that at the bottom of that license it says:

    This tool is based on United States law and MAY NOT BE APPLICABLE
    OUTSIDE THE US. For dedicating new works to the public domain, we
    recommend CC0 (http://creativecommons.org/license/zero/).

Currently, if you want to give "carte blanche" over a work, I suggest
you look at the "expat license" or the MIT license.  The former is what
I use for my works, when they aren't part of a wider project with a
preference for some other license.

    http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt

I'm sorry that copyright law is stupid, counterintuitive and unhelpful,
but I don't think we should pretend that it isn't.