Hi Stian, I’ll forward the question to the legal team!
Ian > On Mar 18, 2016, at 10:29 AM, Stian Soiland-Reyes > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, in Apache Taverna we try to use PROV, and part of that is to embed > https://www.w3.org/ns/prov-o.ttl > in our source code to avoid external dependencies. > > As we discuss in > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TAVERNA-927 > .. now we are not sure if we can do this, as it is unclear what is the > license of the PROV ontologies and schemas. > > They do not have any <!-- style --> headers, and there is no > dcterms:license annotatoin. > > However > > https://www.w3.org/ns/prov/ > and > https://www.w3.org/TR/prov-o/ > > says: > >> Copyright © 2011-2013 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang), All Rights Reserved. >> W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply. > > The Document Use Rules > https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/doc-license > are controversial for Apache source code as it forbids modifications: > >> No right to create modifications or derivatives of W3C documents is granted >> pursuant to this license, except as follows: To facilitate implementation of >> the technical specifications set forth in this document, anyone may prepare >> and distribute derivative works and portions of this document in software, >> in supporting materials accompanying software, and in documentation of >> software, PROVIDED that all such works include the notice below. HOWEVER, >> the publication of derivative works of this document for use as a technical >> specification is expressly prohibited. > > ..and hence we can't include them in source code > repositories/releases, as it would be incompatible with the Apache > License. > > (including in binaries are OK, but then we have to fetch them during > build - which risks hitting the infamous w3.org schema 'tar pit') > > > However the Document Use rules also says: > >> In addition, "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. > > ( The W3C Software License is permissive and would be OK to include in > source code. > https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/copyright-software-and-document ) > > > This list does not include schemas, ontologies or JSON-LD contextx - > so it is unclear if these count as "Code Components" or as > "Documents". Do we then have to assume that if they don't have a > header or license annotation, then they are under the Documentation > License? > > > BTW - here's an example of a schema with the software licence header, > which means we can include it in source code: > > https://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/xmldsig-core-schema.xsd > > (once you get it out of the w3.org tar pit) > > <!-- Schema for XML Signatures > http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig# > $Revision: 1.1 $ on $Date: 2002/02/08 20:32:26 $ by $Author: reagle $ > > Copyright 2001 The Internet Society and W3C (Massachusetts Institute > of Technology, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en > Automatique, Keio University). All Rights Reserved. > http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ > > This document is governed by the W3C Software License [1] as described > in the FAQ [2]. > > [1] http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software-19980720 > [2] http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620.html#DTD > --> > > > Would it be possible for other schemas and ontologies, particularly > under /ns/ to get a similar clarifying license header? Or at least > this to be a requirement for any future specifications? > > > Another question is what counts as a "modification" - is this any > derived work? E.g. changing a Turtle file to JSON-LD? Or generating > Java class files with JAXB from an XSD? > > > We're considering a legal workaround by packaging various w3c schemas > as Maven artifacts, from Github distributed to Maven Central as JAR > "binaries" - but it is even unclear if this would count as a > "modification". > > (We have a similar issue with OASIS schemas) > > -- > Stian Soiland-Reyes, eScience Lab > School of Computer Science > The University of Manchester > http://soiland-reyes.com/stian/work/ http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9842-9718 > -- Ian Jacobs <[email protected]> http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs Tel: +1 718 260 9447
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