The source code for https://copy.church
This site aims to make it easy to dedicate something to the public domain, in the most simple and succinct way possible. So it does not recommend writing verbose text as part of the dedication, like some examples from Creative Commons are done.
License chooser for websites:
"This work is marked CC0 1.0"
License chooser for print:
"This work is marked CC0 1.0. To view a copy of this mark, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"
This shows that generic marking (where it is obvious what the work is and who owned it) is fine. But "is marked" is a bit weird and doesn't mention anything about "public domain". Another minimal example from their own blog is:
"Copyright and related rights waived via CC0"
This shows it doesn't really matter if you say "This work is marked" or "Copyright and related rights waived", and the deed itself says "dedicated the work to the public domain".
The key issues seem to be:
- Is it clear what the work is?
- Is it clear what the legal text is?
- Is it clear that legal text has been applied?
(1) can be satisfied by the context, as shown in the above examples. If the statement is, for example, in the description of a video, then it obviously applies to that video. Since attribution isn't required, it shouldn't matter who the owner is, though it's of course helpful to know when tracing something's origin.
(2) can be satisfied by either linking to a deed that links to the legal text, linking to the legal text directly, or identifying it with the trademark CC0 (such as when links aren't allowed to be posted in a description).
(3) can be satisfied by stating "Dedicated to the public domain", or by adding a badge that says "Public domain" given the whole purpose of the badge is to mark something as public domain.
The badges are designed to contain everything needed to fulfil the above criteria. They mark works as "Public domain" and also include the URL to our "deed" which points to the legal text. This is important given that some users don't actually add a link to the deed themselves.
It doesn't include CC0 given that it is a trademark and Creative Commons would probably object to designing an alternate badge to their own. But it isn't necessary given that the badges embed a link to the deed which does identify it with CC0.
When it isn't possible or desired to add an image, we recommend stating "Dedicated to the public domain via CC0". The "Dedicated to" is helpful to show intent, given that the badge implies intent because of its purpose, which may not be evident by just saying "Public domain" in plain text. And the CC0 is necessary in case the link isn't added or the statement is printed on paper (the badge still has the URL even when printed).
The Creative Commons deed says:
"The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law."
It is clear that by associating a work with the deed, the CC0 legal text is being applied to the work. Which is the way our deed also functions. However, given that we didn't write the legal text, we make it explicit that it is the CC0 legal text that is being applied.