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
+
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+
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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: