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Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 01:21:41 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Henri Yandell (JIRA)" <jira@apache.org>
To: legal-discuss@apache.org
Message-ID: <JIRA.12947592.1457312854000.53414.1457572901066@Atlassian.JIRA>
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Subject: [jira] [Commented] (LEGAL-241) Is W3C Community Contributor License
 Agreement a Category-A license?
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    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-241?page=3Dcom.atlassian.=
jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=3D15188=
437#comment-15188437 ]=20

Henri Yandell commented on LEGAL-241:
-------------------------------------

1/ "Who is _you_?"

It does seem weird. It's a CLA, yet it also seems to be a license to users =
too.

The human readable summary indicates that the community is free to share, m=
odify and implement the specification.=20

The CLA text defines 'you' in 12.9:

    12.9. You or Your. =E2=80=9CYou,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9Cyou,=E2=80=9D or =E2=
=80=9Cyour=E2=80=9D means any person or entity who exercises copyright or p=
atent rights granted under this CLA, and any person or entity that person o=
r entity controls.

Given that 'I' is defined (section 12.5) to be the signatory (contributor t=
o W3C in this context), and 'Project' is defined to be the W3C group who ex=
ecuted the CLA, it seems to imply that 'you' means the users/implementors.=
=20

---

2/ "What is the license?"

As you point out, the parent document indicates that the 'Open Annotation C=
ore Data Model Specification' is under this CLA.

Said CLA states: "Any source code created by the Project is not subject to =
this CLA, but rather subject to separate licensing terms for that source co=
de". So as long as this is the specification and not the source code, it se=
ems safe that the CLA is the license in effect.

3/ License Thoughts

* Copyright terms: These seem within the realm of Apache's.
* Patent terms: These are more complex. You give up a patent license on wha=
t you contribute, and what you complete at time of contribution; but then t=
here are a series of tweaks and conditions. Ones that jump out are:

    12.8.3 May only cover required parts of the specification.
    12.4.2 "not specified in the normative portions". The later definition =
of normative indicates that=20

    "optional features in the RFC 2119 sense are considered normative unles=
s they are specifically identified as informative. Implementation examples =
or any other material that merely illustrate the requirements of the Specif=
ication are informative, rather than normative.".=20

    12.8.4 "may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal RF license"
    12.8.6 - I flat out don't understand this clause. Does 'licensor issued=
 by licensee for infringement of claims" mean a instituting patent litigati=
on?
   =20
* Limited Opt-Out: A bit odd. Seems that you would not want to use anything=
 from the W3C until 45 days after publication. Also that you should be wary=
 of any specification that took more than 150 days to create. I'm hoping I'=
m misunderstanding "any particular Contribution' in the last sentence as th=
is seems like a very weak aspect of the CLA.=20

* Transition to W3C: This references the large 'W3C Patent Policy' and seem=
s to be another way in which the patent realities of this license would not=
 match the Apache 2.0 text.

---

Summary - a lot of legal text, very much interested in others' thoughts.=20

> Is W3C Community Contributor License Agreement a Category-A license?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: LEGAL-241
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-241
>             Project: Legal Discuss
>          Issue Type: Question
>            Reporter: Stian Soiland-Reyes
>
> In TAVERNA-932 we wonder if our use of https://github.com/apache/incubato=
r-taverna-language/blob/0.15.0-incubating/taverna-robundle/src/main/resourc=
es/ontologies/oa.rdf is considered Category-A license.
> Note that the upstream file https://www.w3.org/ns/oa/oa.rdf (which must b=
e fetched with {{curl -H Accept: application/rdf+xml}}) does not include fi=
le-headers - I added those based on the [parent document|http://www.openann=
otation.org/spec/core/20130208/index.html] which says:
> {quote}
> Copyright =C2=A9 2012-2013 the Contributors to the Open Annotation Core D=
ata Model Specification, published by the Open Annotation Community Group u=
nder the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA). A human-readabl=
e summary is available.
> {quote}
> It is a bit unclear what the license for downstream readers actually is, =
as that [W3C Community Contributor License Agreement|https://www.w3.org/com=
munity/about/agreements/cla/] is mainly written for W3C Community Group con=
tributors (which incidentally includes myself).=20
> However it says contributions include:
> {quote}
> 2. Copyrights.
>     2.1. Copyright Grant. I grant to you a perpetual (for the duration of=
 the applicable copyright), worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-fr=
ee, copyright license, without any obligation for accounting to me, to repr=
oduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sub=
license, distribute, and implement any Contribution to the full extent of m=
y copyright interest in the Contribution.
>     2.2. Attribution. As a condition of the copyright grant, you must inc=
lude an attribution to the Specification in any derivative work you make ba=
sed on the Specification. That attribution must include, at minimum, the Sp=
ecification name and version number.
> {quote}
> which to me sounds like a permissive category-A BSD-like license.
> What is the view of LEGAL?


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