Code-dot-mil / Code-dot-mil/code.mil

Give a better explanation of the impact of forking in "What do I need to know if I fork the project?"

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#118 7 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee Claimed by @shawoods View on GitHub
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Description

I think the explanation in the FAQ on what happens if you fork the project stops a little short in the implications of licensing the U.S. Government's foreign copyrights. I would suggest that you beef the explanation up a little.

Although a project consisting of only U.S. government works will not have any copyright protection so the license does not attach within the United States (or in any other jurisdiction that does not recognize copyright in U.S. government created works), downstream projects should understand that the Government is asserting that the LICENSE does apply in at least some foreign jurisdictions. Since many projects distribute code worldwide, you might want to suggest they keep that in mind if they include any of the code licensed in foreign jurisdictions. The explanation now might mislead a U.S. based project into thinking that they take the code free of all copyright restrictions, which is not really true.

For example: Government publishes project A, consisting only of contributions of government employees and asserts that it is licensed under the GPL in any foreign jurisdiction that recognizes copyright in U.S. government works. Assume the [Duchy of Grand Fenwick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared) recognizes US Gov's copyright in it's original works of authorship. If Project B forks project A. Project B is based in the United States so takes Project A as being a public domain work. Project B does not include the foreign LICENSE or a copyright notice for the U.S. gov in project B for the portion of project A. Project B publishes on GitHub under a permissive license. A Fenwickian (F) downloads the code and includes it in another work. F includes project B in a closed source work (C) and distributes it within the Grand Duchy. F followed the permissive license.

Classic law school question: Who can sue who for what and who would win?

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