I really appreciate that Julia enforces a liberal Open Source license on packages. However, I’ve run into a problem. As a US Government employee, I’m required by Title 17 United States Code Section 105 to release my work into the public domain without a copyright. This is the license I’m expected to use:
This software was developed by employees of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST), an agency of the Federal Government and is being made
available as a public service. Pursuant to title 17 United States Code Section
105, works of NIST employees are not subject to copyright protection in the
United States. This software may be subject to foreign copyright. Permission
in the United States and in foreign countries, to the extent that NIST may hold
copyright, to use, copy, modify, create derivative works, and distribute this
software and its documentation without fee is hereby granted on a non-exclusive
basis, provided that this notice and disclaimer of warranty appears in all copies.THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
EXPRESSED, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTY
THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL CONFORM TO SPECIFICATIONS, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT,
AND ANY WARRANTY THAT THE DOCUMENTATION WILL CONFORM TO THE SOFTWARE, OR ANY
WARRANTY THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL BE ERROR FREE. IN NO EVENT SHALL NIST BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF, RESULTING FROM, OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED
WITH THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER OR NOT BASED UPON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR
OTHERWISE, WHETHER OR NOT INJURY WAS SUSTAINED BY PERSONS OR PROPERTY OR OTHERWISE,
AND WHETHER OR NOT LOSS WAS SUSTAINED FROM, OR AROSE OUT OF THE RESULTS OF, OR USE
OF, THE SOFTWARE OR SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER.
It would seem to conform to the ideals that Julia’s licensing requirements promote but is, none-the-less, not permitted by the package registrator because it only accepts a limited number of Open Source Initiative licenses. I can’t be the only Fed to have run into this issue.
Would the Julia overlords be willing to consider adding an exception for Title 19 licenses?