On 5/5/26 16:46, Greg Hogan wrote:
On Tue, May 5, 2026 at 8:52 AM bjc <[email protected]> wrote:
Greg Hogan <[email protected]> writes:
i do not believe you can license products of the public domain — which
llm output is, at least in some places — as there are no property rights
to assert.
if you know otherwise, can you direct me to those sources? i would find
it very strange, but the law is often strange.
i don't know what that means for including significant llm code in gpl
licensed works, though i suspect it means you can't do it. again, i'd
love to see actual legal arguments that cover this.
-bjc
Permissively licensed code (ASL/MIT/BSD) can be combined with copyleft
code. Public domain is simply the most permissive.
The GNU GPL FAQ discusses licensing and the public domain:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
I think technically you'd still not license the (already existing)
public domain code, you'd license the (newly created) combined work.
At least, that is how I understand it from
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/relicensing-versus-compatibility
When combining expat with GPL:
The work under the Modified BSD license is not relicensed to the GNU
GPLv3 when distributed in combination with a work released under the
GNU GPLv3. Instead, it stays under the Modified BSD license [...]
I would think that the same applies to public domain code; that stays
public domain if included in a combined work.
So I think you are essentially both correct: you cannot (re)license
public domain code, but you can license a project that incorporates
public domain code as a whole.
IANAL, but I would think it cannot be otherwise.
A difficulty is perhaps to identify which parts of the code (which parts
of the 'whole') would be GPL and which parts public domain. I can see
that this could potentially cause problems.
But indeed, many package definitions required no creativity, and thus
should be considered facts. Those are already in the public domain to
begin with, so we are already in the situation where we combine public
domain with GPL.
Hugo
