thodg/libgit2

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 5c2eaec..807cd53 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -3,6 +3,12 @@
 We're making it easy to do interesting things with git, and we'd love to have
 your help.
 
+## Licensing
+
+By contributing to libgit2, you agree to release your contribution under the terms of the license.
+For code under `examples`, this is governed by the [CC0 Public Domain Dedication](examples/COPYING).
+All other code is released under the [GPL v2 with linking exception](COPYING).
+
 ## Discussion & Chat
 
 We hang out in the #libgit2 channel on irc.freenode.net.
@@ -70,7 +76,7 @@ you're porting code *from* to see what you need to do.  As a general rule,
 MIT and BSD (3-clause) licenses are typically no problem.  Apache 2.0
 license typically doesn't work due to GPL incompatibility.
 
-If you are pulling in code from core Git, another project or code you've pulled from 
+If you are pulling in code from core Git, another project or code you've pulled from
 a forum / Stack Overflow then please flag this in your PR and also make sure you've
 given proper credit to the original author in the code snippet.
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ce5e229..8ce60af 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -7,9 +7,11 @@ libgit2 - the Git linkable library
 re-entrant linkable library with a solid API, allowing you to write native
 speed custom Git applications in any language with bindings.
 
-`libgit2` is licensed under a **very permissive license** (GPLv2 with a special Linking Exception).
-This basically means that you can link it (unmodified) with any kind of software without having to
-release its source code.
+`libgit2` is licensed under a **very permissive license** (GPLv2 with a special
+Linking Exception).  This basically means that you can link it (unmodified)
+with any kind of software without having to release its source code.
+Additionally, the example code has been released to the public domain (see the
+[separate license](examples/COPYING) for more information).
 
 * Website: [libgit2.github.com](http://libgit2.github.com)
 * StackOverflow Tag: [libgit2](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/libgit2)
diff --git a/examples/COPYING b/examples/COPYING
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e259d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/COPYING
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+Creative Commons Legal Code
+
+CC0 1.0 Universal
+
+    CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION IS NOT A LAW FIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE
+    LEGAL SERVICES. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS DOCUMENT DOES NOT CREATE AN
+    ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. CREATIVE COMMONS PROVIDES THIS
+    INFORMATION ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS. CREATIVE COMMONS MAKES NO WARRANTIES
+    REGARDING THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT OR THE INFORMATION OR WORKS
+    PROVIDED HEREUNDER, AND DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM
+    THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT OR THE INFORMATION OR WORKS PROVIDED
+    HEREUNDER.
+
+Statement of Purpose
+
+The laws of most jurisdictions throughout the world automatically confer
+exclusive Copyright and Related Rights (defined below) upon the creator
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+1. Copyright and Related Rights. A Work made available under CC0 may be
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+vii. other similar, equivalent or corresponding rights throughout the
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+purposes (the "Waiver"). Affirmer makes the Waiver for the benefit of each
+member of the public at large and to the detriment of Affirmer's heirs and
+successors, fully intending that such Waiver shall not be subject to
+revocation, rescission, cancellation, termination, or any other legal or
+equitable action to disrupt the quiet enjoyment of the Work by the public
+as contemplated by Affirmer's express Statement of Purpose.
+
+3. Public License Fallback. Should any part of the Waiver for any reason
+be judged legally invalid or ineffective under applicable law, then the
+Waiver shall be preserved to the maximum extent permitted taking into
+account Affirmer's express Statement of Purpose. In addition, to the
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+irrevocable and unconditional license to exercise Affirmer's Copyright and
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+maximum duration provided by applicable law or treaty (including future
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+limitation commercial, advertising or promotional purposes (the
+"License"). The License shall be deemed effective as of the date CC0 was
+applied by Affirmer to the Work. Should any part of the License for any
+reason be judged legally invalid or ineffective under applicable law, such
+partial invalidity or ineffectiveness shall not invalidate the remainder
+of the License, and in such case Affirmer hereby affirms that he or she
+will not (i) exercise any of his or her remaining Copyright and Related
+Rights in the Work or (ii) assert any associated claims and causes of
+action with respect to the Work, in either case contrary to Affirmer's
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+4. Limitations and Disclaimers.
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+    surrendered, licensed or otherwise affected by this document.
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+    the greatest extent permissible under applicable law.
+ c. Affirmer disclaims responsibility for clearing rights of other persons
+    that may apply to the Work or any use thereof, including without
+    limitation any person's Copyright and Related Rights in the Work.
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+    consents, permissions or other rights required for any use of the
+    Work.
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+    party to this document and has no duty or obligation with respect to
+    this CC0 or use of the Work.
diff --git a/examples/README.md b/examples/README.md
index 494d329..769c4b2 100644
--- a/examples/README.md
+++ b/examples/README.md
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@ handling, and cross-platform compatibility in the same manner as the rest
 of the code in libgit2, so copy with caution.
 
 That being said, you are welcome to copy code from these examples as
-desired when using libgit2.
+desired when using libgit2. They have been [released to the public domain][cc0],
+so there are no restrictions on their use.
+
+[cc0]: COPYING
 
 For annotated HTML versions, see the "Examples" section of:
 
diff --git a/examples/add.c b/examples/add.c
index 999a41e..336596b 100644
--- a/examples/add.c
+++ b/examples/add.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "add" example - shows how to modify the index
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/cat-file.c b/examples/cat-file.c
index 5e54762..fa6add0 100644
--- a/examples/cat-file.c
+++ b/examples/cat-file.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "cat-file" example - shows how to print data from the ODB
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/common.c b/examples/common.c
index 5972bc5..12dbccf 100644
--- a/examples/common.c
+++ b/examples/common.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * Utilities library for libgit2 examples
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/common.h b/examples/common.h
index 5ffc9c8..2fd7d57 100644
--- a/examples/common.h
+++ b/examples/common.h
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * Utilities library for libgit2 examples
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include <stdio.h>
diff --git a/examples/diff.c b/examples/diff.c
index b141564..daf5d70 100644
--- a/examples/diff.c
+++ b/examples/diff.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "diff" example - shows how to use the diff API
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/general.c b/examples/general.c
index d7a5847..f23dccb 100644
--- a/examples/general.c
+++ b/examples/general.c
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+/*
+ * libgit2 "general" example - shows basic libgit2 concepts
+ *
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
+ */
+
 // [**libgit2**][lg] is a portable, pure C implementation of the Git core
 // methods provided as a re-entrant linkable library with a solid API,
 // allowing you to write native speed custom Git applications in any
diff --git a/examples/init.c b/examples/init.c
index 1c37125..0e823ab 100644
--- a/examples/init.c
+++ b/examples/init.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "init" example - shows how to initialize a new repo
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/log.c b/examples/log.c
index a36d4c9..471c5ff 100644
--- a/examples/log.c
+++ b/examples/log.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "log" example - shows how to walk history and get commit info
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/rev-list.c b/examples/rev-list.c
index 9330c64..5c0d751 100644
--- a/examples/rev-list.c
+++ b/examples/rev-list.c
@@ -1,8 +1,16 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "rev-list" example - shows how to transform a rev-spec into a list
+ * of commit ids
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/rev-parse.c b/examples/rev-parse.c
index 64a02fe..a248337 100644
--- a/examples/rev-parse.c
+++ b/examples/rev-parse.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "rev-parse" example - shows how to parse revspecs
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/showindex.c b/examples/showindex.c
index f4c92f0..7f7c383 100644
--- a/examples/showindex.c
+++ b/examples/showindex.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "showindex" example - shows how to extract data from the index
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
diff --git a/examples/status.c b/examples/status.c
index 4a8b270..3adfe0d 100644
--- a/examples/status.c
+++ b/examples/status.c
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * libgit2 "status" example - shows how to use the status APIs
  *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ * Written by the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright
+ * and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain
+ * worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
+ * with this software. If not, see
+ * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
 #include "common.h"