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I explicitly put some code samples under CC0 because I want people to feel complete freedom to copy and paste the code without needing to maintain attribution o

I explicitly put some code samples under CC0 because I want people to feel complete freedom to copy and paste the code without needing to maintain attribution or worry about licensing compatibility. For example: https://jsfiddle.net/rectang/fwto2ejh/ https://jsfiddle.net/rectang/fwto2ejh/ The CC0 dedication is at the bottom; you have to scroll to it. I chose to slightly modify the CC0 dedication for this to comport with the fact that you won't receive a copy of CC0 with the materials. I didn't like having to do that and wish that Creative Commons would provide an official accommodation. I'm reasonably confident that my change won't materially affect a future court case over my code though. :) ETA: I strongly recommend that other people DO NOT change dedications. I'm reasonably educated on these topics for a layperson, but not a lawyer. I mentioned the change as a warning that my dedication should not be considered a CC-approved template.

atmartins 8y ago
Can you elaborate on why this is advantageous to the situation in the article?
- rectang 8y ago
  For the purpose of establishing prior art, it is not advantageous at all in comparison. The article talks about how patent examiners have limited resources and tend to rely on searching the patent database to find prior art. Putting something on the internet with a CC0 dedication is not going to make it any more visible to them. I'm confident that there are no patentable ideas in my code and my purpose is just to minimize the burden on downstream users of copyright licensing. If there were patented ideas in my code that I wished to license to downstream users, CC0 would actually be a poor choice, because it explicitly excludes a patent grant. That's why CC0 is not endorsed by OSI, and there's been a lot of hand-wringing over that clause. Note that if you do copy/paste public domain code into a non-trivial project, you still should record its origins in version control at least -- even if the license doesn't require attribution.

atmartins 8y ago

Can you elaborate on why this is advantageous to the situation in the article?

rectang 8y ago
For the purpose of establishing prior art, it is not advantageous at all in comparison. The article talks about how patent examiners have limited resources and tend to rely on searching the patent database to find prior art. Putting something on the internet with a CC0 dedication is not going to make it any more visible to them. I'm confident that there are no patentable ideas in my code and my purpose is just to minimize the burden on downstream users of copyright licensing. If there were patented ideas in my code that I wished to license to downstream users, CC0 would actually be a poor choice, because it explicitly excludes a patent grant. That's why CC0 is not endorsed by OSI, and there's been a lot of hand-wringing over that clause. Note that if you do copy/paste public domain code into a non-trivial project, you still should record its origins in version control at least -- even if the license doesn't require attribution.