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by mrweasel 3143 days ago
>How is it possible that they can sell licenses to the code that was put into the public domain by other contributors?

Because you're required to sign a piece of paper that says: Yes, I agree to place this code in the public domain, if you want to contribute a patch to SQLite. What you're paying Hipps company for, when you buy a license, is keep records that says that all code is in fact in the public domain.