[License-review] Request for approval of the updated W3C Software license

Tue Aug 13 01:17:42 UTC 2024

Below is the recommendation of the License Committee on the W3C license, 
which is /"Resolved that it is the opinion of the OSI that the W3C 
Software and Document license - 2023 version is not a new license. The 
text on the OSI website will be modified to reflect that the license has 
alternative text for the names of the copyright owners."/

  The next Board meeting is Friday, August 16, when I expect the Board 
will vote on the recommendation.

Pam

====================

License: W3C Software and Document license - 2023 version (Exhibit A)
Submitted: 18 April 2024, 
https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2024-April/005464.html
Decision date: due no later than the first Board meeting after 18 June 2024

*License Review Committee Recommendation: *

Resolved that it is the opinion of the OSI that the W3C Software and 
Document license - 2023 version is not a new license. The text on the 
OSI website will be modified to reflect that the license has alternative 
text for the names of the copyright owners."

Rationale Document

The license-review list criticized this license here and here for its 
reference to external documents (“Permission to copy … provided that you 
include the following on ALL copies of the work or portions thereof, 
including modifications: Any pre-existing intellectual property 
disclaimers, notices, or terms and conditions”) that might add 
unacceptable limitations, including the withholding of patent licenses. 
However, this license was approved in 2017, despite the objections also 
being voiced then.

SPDX, which has established standards for determining when changes to a 
license create a new version, said “In 2023, W3C made minor 
modifications to this license as of Jan 1, 2023…. However, those changes 
did not give rise to a new license under the SPDX Matching Guidelines, 
thus the same id can be used.”

In order to maintain consistency with OSI’s past decisions and with SPDX 
(thus also avoiding the challenge of having an OSI-approved license that 
would not have a unique SPDX identifier), the OSI will also consider 
this license the same license as the 2015 version and an OSI-approved 
license.

Exhibit A

Software and Document license - 2023 version

Status: This document is in effect since 1 January 2023.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
This work is being provided by the copyright holders under the following
license.

License

By obtaining and/or copying this work, you (the licensee) agree that you 
have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and 
conditions.

Permission to copy, modify, and distribute this work, with or without 
modification, for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby 
granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the 
work or portions thereof, including modifications:

   • The full text of this NOTICE in a location viewable to users of the 
redistributed or derivative work.
   • Any pre-existing intellectual property disclaimers, notices, or 
terms and conditions. If none exist, the W3C software and document short 
notice should be included.
   • Notice of any changes or modifications, through a copyright 
statement on the new code or document such as "This software or document 
includes material copied from or derived from [title and URI of the W3C 
document]. Copyright © [$year-of-document] World Wide Web Consortium. 
https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/"

Disclaimers

THIS WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS MAKE NO 
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT 
LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR 
PURPOSE OR THAT THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENT WILL NOT INFRINGE 
ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.

COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL 
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENT.

The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in 
advertising or
publicity pertaining to the work without specific, written prior 
permission. Title to copyright in this work will at all times remain 
with copyright holders.

Versions

   • This version: https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/
   • Latest version: https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license/
   • Previous version: https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2015/

Changes since the previous document

On 4/18/2024 10:42 AM, Rigo Wenning wrote:
> Hello,
>
> W3C has registered its Software Notice and License with OSI. OSI 
> approved the 2015 version of the license on November 29, 2017.
>
> https://opensource.org/license/w3c
>
> On 2023-01-01, W3C changed its underlying structure and legal status. 
> This affects the wording of the license registered with OSI.
>
> W3C updated the 2015 Software license with the necessary legal 
> information and created the 2023 Software license.
>
> The main change is in the copyright notice. There is no change in the 
> legal text, except for the attribution to the new legal entity moving 
> from W3C hosts to the new W3C legal entity.
>
> The new license can be seen online here:
>
> https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/
>
> and attached as text version.
>
> Asserting that, like the 2015 version, the 2023 version of the W3C 
> Software license continues to comply with the Open Source Definition. 
> Especially it continues to comply OSD principle 3 by allowing for 
> derivative works, principle 5 and 6 by avoiding all discriminations 
> and principle 9 as it does not affect combinability.
>
> W3C therefore humbly requests the approval of the 2023 version of the 
> W3C Software license by OSI and the update of the license stored in
>
> https://opensource.org/license/w3c
>
> Yours sincerely
>
>  --
>  Rechtsanwalt Rigo Wenning
>  ERCIM/W3C Legal counsel
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Communication from the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
>
> License-review mailing list
> License-review at lists.opensource.org
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-- 
Pamela S. Chestek Chair, License Committee Open Source Initiative
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