"Public Domain" does not exist in some jurisdictions, consider CC0?

[eternaleye]

Some jurisdictions have no concept of committing a work to the "Public Domain" - and others have rights that cannot be waived (authorship rights vs. editorial rights). CC0 handles these by using Public Domain where it exists, and getting as close as possible where it doesn't.

https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/CC0

See also: https://cr.yp.to/publicdomain.html

[eternaleye]

In addition, the following language is potentially problematic:

I would love pull requests, and will assume that they are also dedicated to the public domain.

The reason is that while this states your assumptions, it does not in any way bind contributors to actually do so - it thus opens up enough room for someone to raise FUD over submarine claims.

Something along the lines of the DCO, which ensures inbound=outbound, would resolve the issue. For further information on the DCO, https://lwn.net/Articles/592503/ is a good read.

[oakes]

I'll consider CC0, but I have avoided it thus far because I didn't want to accommodate broken legal systems (I consider lack of public domain as broken FWIW). Nonetheless on practical grounds I understand why it would make sense. One counterpoint is that SQLite is public domain and contains no such fallback, and it's possibly the most widely deployed software on the planet =)

[ghost]

Intellectual property is unprovable and therefore a fraud.