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<p>Below is the recommendation of the License Committee on the W3C
license, which is <i>"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."</i><br>
</p>
<p> The next Board meeting is Friday, August 16, when I expect the
Board will vote on the recommendation.</p>
<p>Pam<br>
</p>
<p>====================<br>
</p>
<p>License: W3C Software and Document license - 2023 version
(Exhibit A)<br>
Submitted: 18 April 2024,
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2024-April/005464.html">https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2024-April/005464.html</a><br>
Decision date: due no later than the first Board meeting after 18
June 2024<br>
<br>
<b>License Review Committee Recommendation: </b><br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
Rationale Document<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Exhibit A<br>
<br>
Software and Document license - 2023 version<br>
<br>
Status: This document is in effect since 1 January 2023.<br>
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━<br>
This work is being provided by the copyright holders under the
following<br>
license.<br>
<br>
License<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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:<br>
<br>
• The full text of this NOTICE in a location viewable to users
of the redistributed or derivative work.<br>
• Any pre-existing intellectual property disclaimers, notices,
or terms and conditions. If none exist, the W3C software and
document short notice should be included.<br>
• 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.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/">https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/</a>"<br>
<br>
Disclaimers<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE
SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENT.<br>
<br>
The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in
advertising or<br>
publicity pertaining to the work without specific, written prior
permission. Title to copyright in this work will at all times
remain with copyright holders.<br>
<br>
Versions<br>
<br>
• This version:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/">https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/</a><br>
• Latest version: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license/">https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license/</a><br>
• Previous version:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2015/">https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2015/</a><br>
<br>
Changes since the previous document<br>
<br>
• The 2023 version updates identification of the copyright
holder.<br>
<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/18/2024 10:42 AM, Rigo Wenning
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:5ced66ba-1ee3-485e-a39c-80b35226e5cd@w3.org">Hello,
<br>
<br>
W3C has registered its Software Notice and License with OSI. OSI
approved the 2015 version of the license on November 29, 2017.
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://opensource.org/license/w3c">https://opensource.org/license/w3c</a>
<br>
<br>
On 2023-01-01, W3C changed its underlying structure and legal
status. This affects the wording of the license registered with
OSI.
<br>
<br>
W3C updated the 2015 Software license with the necessary legal
information and created the 2023 Software license.
<br>
<br>
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.
<br>
<br>
The new license can be seen online here:
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/">https://www.w3.org/copyright/software-license-2023/</a>
<br>
<br>
and attached as text version.
<br>
<br>
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.
<br>
<br>
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
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://opensource.org/license/w3c">https://opensource.org/license/w3c</a>
<br>
<br>
Yours sincerely
<br>
<br>
--
<br>
Rechtsanwalt Rigo Wenning
<br>
ERCIM/W3C Legal counsel
<br>
<br>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:License-review@lists.opensource.org">License-review@lists.opensource.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-review_lists.opensource.org">http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-review_lists.opensource.org</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Pamela S. Chestek
Chair, License Committee
Open Source Initiative</div>
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