Re: Some licensing questions regarding celestia

[Anthony DeRobertis <asd@suespammers.org>]

On Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, at 11:45 US/Eastern, Rick Moen wrote:

> And if that person objects that, no, he really, really wants to destroy
> his copyright and make the code be actually (or at least effectively 
> but
> for certain so) public domain, then I would advise him that it's an
> imperfect world, and nobody knows how to do that without the risk of
> creating very troublesome legal questions for the remaining duration of
> the copyright term.

Why not do something like:

	<statement (maybe) releasing work to public domain>

	If the above is not legally possible, then (name[s]) grant(s) you
	and any other party receiving this code a perpetual, irrevocable,
	royalty-free license to [everything copyright law prohibits].

	(name[s]) additionally grant(s) you a royalty-free... license
	to do anything else that you would be allowed to do with a
	work in the public domain.

	It is the intent of (name[s]) that this work be treated as if
	the "public domain" statement above is valid.

What would be wrong with that? Best case, it is public domain; worst 
case, it is public domain in all but name.