DEVELOPMENT VERSION: This is an experimental DALICC environment. Features, data and APIs may change or be reset without notice. A stable version of this service, with a potentially different feature set, will be made available soon at dalicc.net.

2026

Archived version 1 of 2. This is how the model read before it was corrected. It is shown read only. The current version is here.

Open Software License 3.0

Also known as OSL v. 3.0, OSL-3.0, Open Software License v. 3.0 (OSL-3.0), The Open Software License 3.0, The Open Software License 3.0 (OSL-3.0).

Commercial use
allowed
Share alike
not required
Attribution
required (keep the copyright and license notices)
Go to the current version Download version 1 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OSL-3.0

Permissions

  • Charge distribution fee from the text Charging a fee for the act of providing a copy of the work to someone else.
  • Charge license fee from the text Charging a fee for granting someone a license to the work.
  • Commercial use from the text Using the work to generate income, directly or indirectly, for example by selling it or by using it in advertising.
  • Derivative works from the text Distributing an adaptation of the work and making it available to the public.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Derive from the text Creating a new work from the work, such as a translation, adaptation or arrangement of it or of a part of it.
  • Display from the text Showing the work to the public without making a copy the viewer keeps.
  • Distribute from the text Providing copies of the work to the public or to anyone else.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Modify from the text Altering the work, for example by updating it, without creating a new work; an alteration that creates a new work is Derive.
  • No-warranty notice from the text Attaching a notice that the work is provided without any warranty.
  • Present from the text Performing the work in public, including by broadcast or other communication to the public.
  • Reproduce from the text Making copies of the work in any form.
  • Share alike from the text Adaptations have to be licensed under the same license or one the license names as compatible.

    Duties

    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.

Prohibitions

  • Add statement from the text Not permitted: Add statement. Attaching terms, notices or statements of one's own to the work or to one's modifications when passing it on.
  • Grant use from the text Not permitted: Grant use. Granting third parties the right to use the work.
  • Promote from the text Not permitted: Promote. Using the name or trademarks of the licensor or of contributors to endorse or promote a product.

License-wide duties

This license states no duties that apply to the work as a whole.

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

Licensor warrants that the copyright in and to the Original Work and the patent rights granted herein by Licensor are owned by the Licensor or are sublicensed to You under the terms of this License with the permission of the contributor(s) of those copyrights and patent rights. Except as expressly stated in the immediately preceding sentence, the Original Work is provided under this License on an "AS IS" BASIS and WITHOUT WARRANTY, either express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of non-infringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE ORIGINAL WORK IS WITH YOU. This DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY constitutes an essential part of this License. No license to the Original Work is granted by this License except under this disclaimer.

Info

Target asset types
Software
Region / jurisdiction
Worldwide
Validity
Perpetual
Source
http://rosenlaw.com/OSL3.0-explained.htm
Legal code
http://opensource.org/licenses/OSL-3.0
This description is published under
https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/CC-BY-4.0
Publisher
Lawrence Rosen
Attribution name
Lawrence Rosen
SPDX identifier
OSL-3.0 (provisional, the record declares none)
DALICC identifier
OSL-3.0

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

  1. Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

    The content review of 2026-09-15 added 1 clause text, 1 identification detail and 1 license-wide duty, removed 1 permission and 1 prohibition, changed 1 identification detail and recorded the review state. Later changes brought it in line with its family and its text in the verification of 2026-09-15 and named the license the record itself is published under.

    View JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML

    14 changes

    • added dalicc:LiabilityLimitation "Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, shall the Licensor be liable to anyone for any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this License or the use of the Original Work including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses. This limitation of liability shall not apply to the extent applicable law prohibits such limitation."

      Review finding Clause 8 was not recorded. Added, quoted. dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer already held clause 7 correctly.

    • added dalicc:reviewStatus dalicc:Reviewed

      Review state Every record records how far it has come in the editorial workflow and when it was last checked against the legal text.

    • added dalicc:reviewedOn "2026-09-15"^^xsd:date

      Review state Every record records how far it has come in the editorial workflow and when it was last checked against the legal text.

    • changed dct:source osl:OSL-3.0

      was dct:source <http://rosenlaw.com/OSL3.0-explained.htm>

      Review finding Added OSL-3.0 and repointed dct:source, which named rosenlaw.com/OSL3.0-explained.htm, an explanatory commentary, rather than the license text.

    • added duty cc:ShareAlike

      Review finding Clause 1(c) grants the right "to distribute or communicate copies of the Original Work and Derivative Works to the public, with the proviso that copies of Original Work or Derivative Works that You distribute or communicate shall be licensed under this Open Software License". That is a duty, not a permission. Removed the cc:ShareAlike permission and added a license-wide cc:ShareAlike duty, the form the GNU and Mozilla records use.

    • removed permission cc:ShareAlike with duties [cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]

      Review finding Clause 1(c) grants the right "to distribute or communicate copies of the Original Work and Derivative Works to the public, with the proviso that copies of Original Work or Derivative Works that You distribute or communicate shall be licensed under this Open Software License". That is a duty, not a permission. Removed the cc:ShareAlike permission and added a license-wide cc:ShareAlike duty, the form the GNU and Mozilla records use.

    • removed prohibition odrl:grantUse

      Review finding Clause 1 grants a "worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable license". The record prohibited odrl:grantUse, which the text contradicts. Removed the prohibition. The matching permission was deliberately not added: the dependency graph axiom "cc:ShareAlike dalicc:contradicts odrl:grantUse" would then report a direct conflict, and this license proves the axiom is too strong, since a sublicense under the same terms is exactly what clause 1(c) requires.

    • added spdx:licenseId "OSL-3.0"

      Review finding Added OSL-3.0 and repointed dct:source, which named rosenlaw.com/OSL3.0-explained.htm, an explanatory commentary, rather than the license text.

    • removed permission dalicc:noWarrantyNotice

      Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency and consolidation decision 4: the record permitted dalicc:noWarrantyNotice and prohibited dalicc:addStatement without support, made no patent statement although section 2 grants one and section 10 ends it on patent litigation, and said nothing about relicensing although clause 1(c) requires every copy to be 'licensed under this License', which the four new Open Software License records model as a dalicc:ChangeLicense prohibition.

    • added permission dalicc:patentGrant

      Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency and consolidation decision 4: the record permitted dalicc:noWarrantyNotice and prohibited dalicc:addStatement without support, made no patent statement although section 2 grants one and section 10 ends it on patent litigation, and said nothing about relicensing although clause 1(c) requires every copy to be 'licensed under this License', which the four new Open Software License records model as a dalicc:ChangeLicense prohibition.

    • added prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense

      Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency and consolidation decision 4: the record permitted dalicc:noWarrantyNotice and prohibited dalicc:addStatement without support, made no patent statement although section 2 grants one and section 10 ends it on patent litigation, and said nothing about relicensing although clause 1(c) requires every copy to be 'licensed under this License', which the four new Open Software License records model as a dalicc:ChangeLicense prohibition.

    • removed prohibition dalicc:addStatement

      Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency and consolidation decision 4: the record permitted dalicc:noWarrantyNotice and prohibited dalicc:addStatement without support, made no patent statement although section 2 grants one and section 10 ends it on patent litigation, and said nothing about relicensing although clause 1(c) requires every copy to be 'licensed under this License', which the four new Open Software License records model as a dalicc:ChangeLicense prohibition.

    • added prohibition dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination

      Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency and consolidation decision 4: the record permitted dalicc:noWarrantyNotice and prohibited dalicc:addStatement without support, made no patent statement although section 2 grants one and section 10 ends it on patent litigation, and said nothing about relicensing although clause 1(c) requires every copy to be 'licensed under this License', which the four new Open Software License records model as a dalicc:ChangeLicense prohibition.

    • added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>

      Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.

  2. Version 1

    The version this model had before the content review of 2026-09-15.

    View JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML

Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.