There's no such thing as public domain for software. And, in the attempt, you probably make yourself legally liable for any damage your software causes anyone else whether perceived or actual. The best you can do, to date, is offer your software under the very liberal MIT software license, which contains the requisite protective NO WARRANTY OR FITNESS clause. A software license protects you, not your software, from unnecessary and very expensive litigation.
I'm not a lawyer. The above information comes from discussions I've had with the Open Source Initiative (OSI) specifically about public domain and software licensing. If you want legal advice, you should talk to a lawyer. OSI licenses like the MIT license have already been vetted by real lawyers and you should select and use one of them.
I use the unlicense, so there's a fallback in case public domain doesn't legally work
there's also a "no warranty" clause just in case
that wouldn't matter anyway because if it just said "public domain" and that was void, then it would default back to "all rights reserved" and I wouldn't be liable for shit because nobody would have a right to use it at all
I'm fairly confident that such a clause is kind of pointless anyway as I'm not selling my code or advertising it for business purposes and it's very clear that I'm just some random person on the internet writing code, but I haven't felt the need to look this up because 1., 2. and 3.
Anyway, here's the license text for reference (I also have some older code under MIT)
This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.
Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or
distribute this software, either in source code form or as a compiled
binary, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any
means.
In jurisdictions that recognize copyright laws, the author or authors
of this software dedicate any and all copyright interest in the
software to the public domain. We make this dedication for the benefit
of the public at large and to the detriment of our heirs and
successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of
relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights to this
software under copyright law.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
For more information, please refer to <http://unlicense.org/>
Sounds like a bunch of IANAL bringing up legal criticisms mostly intended to cc0 that, if they apply to the unlicense, would equally apply to the MIT license (which, for example, has the exact same warranty paragraph that the most upvoted answer calls "inconsistent" in the unlicense)
The part about it being "illegal" in Germany is also a bit weird.
Usabilty Engineer and JavaScript/TypeScript Developer.
On the path to become a Clean Code Developer.
Also rediscovering OOP-Principals and Design-Patterns.
I'd like to see the lawsuit where some big company points at some random guy who posted some code online: "That dude! Its his fault! He put the code online. We just copied it and used it without looking at it. After all: He did't put a sign up there: 'I am not liable if you use it in a nuclear power-plant.'"
There's no such thing as public domain for software. And, in the attempt, you probably make yourself legally liable for any damage your software causes anyone else whether perceived or actual. The best you can do, to date, is offer your software under the very liberal MIT software license, which contains the requisite protective NO WARRANTY OR FITNESS clause. A software license protects you, not your software, from unnecessary and very expensive litigation.
I'm not a lawyer. The above information comes from discussions I've had with the Open Source Initiative (OSI) specifically about public domain and software licensing. If you want legal advice, you should talk to a lawyer. OSI licenses like the MIT license have already been vetted by real lawyers and you should select and use one of them.
I use the unlicense, so there's a fallback in case public domain doesn't legally work
there's also a "no warranty" clause just in case
that wouldn't matter anyway because if it just said "public domain" and that was void, then it would default back to "all rights reserved" and I wouldn't be liable for shit because nobody would have a right to use it at all
I'm fairly confident that such a clause is kind of pointless anyway as I'm not selling my code or advertising it for business purposes and it's very clear that I'm just some random person on the internet writing code, but I haven't felt the need to look this up because 1., 2. and 3.
Anyway, here's the license text for reference (I also have some older code under MIT)
softwareengineering.stackexchange....
Sounds like a bunch of IANAL bringing up legal criticisms mostly intended to cc0 that, if they apply to the unlicense, would equally apply to the MIT license (which, for example, has the exact same warranty paragraph that the most upvoted answer calls "inconsistent" in the unlicense)
The part about it being "illegal" in Germany is also a bit weird.
I'd like to see the lawsuit where some big company points at some random guy who posted some code online: "That dude! Its his fault! He put the code online. We just copied it and used it without looking at it. After all: He did't put a sign up there: 'I am not liable if you use it in a nuclear power-plant.'"
Its going to be hilarious.
Unfortunately, within the current legal system in the United States, anything is possible.
I'd be lying if I said the legal system of the USA is anywhere high on my priority list when choosing a software license tbh.