Licensing!

Copyright Licensing

You asked for greater flexibility, we listened.

Licensing Updates

1. General Document License
2. Software (and Document) License
3. Relicensing of Unfinished Specifications
4. IE Agreement

General Document License

• "Code Components" —Web IDL in sections clearly marked as Web IDL; and W3C-defined markup (HTML, CSS, etc.) and computer programming language code clearly marked as code examples— are licensed under the W3C Software License.
• Non-Specification derivative works: anyone may prepare and distribute derivative works and portions of this document in software, in supporting materials accompanying software, and in documentation of software.

Updated Document License, http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/doc-license.html, effective 1 February 2015.

Permissive License: Software and Document License

A more permissive license that permits even "forking," with two key attributes:

• Attribution: "This software or document includes material copied from or derived from [title and URI of the W3C document]. Copyright © 2015 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang)."
• GPL-compatibility

We renamed the existing "Software License" to "Software and Document License" to make evident that it is intended for more than software.

Updated Software and Document License, http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/copyright-software-and-document, effective May 2015.

Use Cases for Permissive Licensing

• Software
• Unfinished/abandoned specifications
• HTML Extension specifications
• HTML.next?

Relicensing Unfinished Specifications

New process for relicensing of specification texts on which WG has stopped work.

1. Request for relicensing
2. Director's preliminary review, including WG input
3. AC review and public notice
4. Director's decision
   IFF conditions are satisfied:
5. Publication under permissive license

Relicensing policy, http://www.w3.org/2014/12/relicense.html, enacted December 2014.

Invited Expert Agreement

Draft 2015 revisions:
• Enable IEs to re-use their contributions.