[starsinspace]

What I miss from the Amiga days is the wide spread release of "public domain software". People would just write applications, tools, games and say "released as public domain" and that was it. Do what you want, have fun! These days it's all so much more complicated with licenses (even if it's FOSS licenses), everything full of text which only a lawyer can understand and no clear definition of what "derivative work" means. I miss those simpler times, before most software licenses were a complicated legal minefield.

[wtallis]

It is a legal minefield either way; current FOSS practices are to put signs around the minefield instead of pretending that it doesn't exist.

For example, some jurisdictions don't have a way for authors to dedicate a work to the public domain and surrender all rights. Complications like that are why having explicit lawyer-vetted licenses are preferable, even if not all provisions of the license have been tested in court.

[starsinspace]

Yeah, you're right. I also wouldn't recommend to try just say "public domain" today for that reason.