[wongarsu]

While that's a great reason in the US, internationally unless it's under the CC0 or similar the Apache License is actually preferable to Public Domain (assigning things to public domain is not trivial or even possible everywhere)

[dannyw]

Can someone release their work in the public domain, and also license it under the Apache License?

[wongarsu]

Sure. In any country without a concept of releasing something into public domain the fact that you did so would be irrelevant and the Apache License would apply, in any country where you successfully released it into public domain that already gives all the rights granted by the Apache License. The restrictions of the Apache License obviously wouldn't apply in those countries.

Though if you try such legal tricks you may as well use the CC0 [1], it's designed to emulate public domain as closely as possible in a way that's valid everywhere.

1: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc...

[Spivak]

> The restrictions of the Apache License obviously wouldn't apply in those countries.

How does this work? Can you 'dual license' with public domain?

[webmaven]

Assigning new works to the public domain is a pain in many jurisdictions, but if a work originates in the US as public domain, it is in the public domain everywhere.

Note that this doesn't apply to non-USG-made derivative works, though.