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Wow public domain license! Smart move, I assume those disgruntled devs who "joined a project to explore the “future of tax filing” in the private sector" can no
by skrebbel 1y ago
Wow public domain license! Smart move, I assume those disgruntled devs who "joined a project to explore the “future of tax filing” in the private sector" can now easily fork it and compete with TurboTax directly (with, I hope, a much better product at a lower price). Normally that'd feel a bit scummy but in this case I can't fault them for it.
Here's to hoping they can outcompete TurboTax so brutally that Intuit won't be able to pay for all those lobbyists anymore.
- Rebelgecko 1y agoIIRC public domain is actually the "default" for code released by the government
- haiku2077 1y agoYes, works of the US Federal Government are public domain. It gets complicated when state governments, contractors, etc. are involved, but Direct File was in-house work by USDS/18F.
- kj4ips 1y agoYep, one of the more popular FOSS CNC controllers (LinuxCNC) draws its heritage from a NIST project, and at least one major manufacturer ships a variant of it in their machines.
- AStonesThrow 1y agoAlthough it is written in the "LICENSE" file for purposes of uniformity and GitHub compatibility, a dedication to the Public Domain is not a "license". As you can see, they waive all their rights to claim copyright protection, and therefore, no license is possible; no license is necessary to use it for any purpose. And yes, "As a work of the US Government" it is dedicated to the Public Domain by law.
- gowld 1y agoTurboTax already has competitors.
- BHSPitMonkey 1y agoFTA: > Releasing Direct File’s source code demonstrates that the IRS is fulfilling its obligations under the SHARE IT Act[1] (three weeks ahead of schedule!). [1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9566 https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9566