NASA and open-source software

NASA was definitely at the forefront of GOSS, especially in the late 90's early 00's when Government agencies were just starting to get involved. The fundamental crafting of a licensed based in contract law instead of copyright law was (and remains) very novel for the time as there are just a couple on OSI's approved list that do not rely on copyright.

That said, there's been great strides in understanding since then that 1) US Gov't can hold copyright (e.g., assignment), 2) US Gov't asserts copyright internationally (despite Berne defaults), and 3) there are ample examples of US Gov't applying a copyright-based license to a Gov't work and nobody blinked.

I'm particularly fond of DoD's modern approach (since 2018, see code.mil) in suggesting most OSI-approved licenses may be used, recommending a few (all copyright-based) to keep proliferation and understanding to a minimum, and adding an INTENT file. That file spells out the caveat that some content may be public domain in some situations, and it leaves it at that.