PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0

Also known as PolyForm Shield 1.0.0, PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0.

Commercial use: allowed
Share alike: required
Attribution: required (keep the copyright and license notices)

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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0

Permissions

Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Share alike from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Share alike from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Share alike from the text
Patent grant from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

Change license from the text
Sublicense from the text

License-wide duties

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

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

Promote by default rule (adopted)

This license says nothing about Promote, and the graph applies this reading in all jurisdictions it covers: it is not permitted unless the license permits it.

A licence that says nothing about endorsement is read as not allowing it: the licence gives the licensee no right to use the licensor's name or marks in a way that states or implies that the licensor endorses the licensee or its product, while stating truthfully that a work is based on or uses the licensed work is a different act that this rule does not decide. A copyright licence grants rights in the work, and the right to use a name or a trademark is a separate right under trademark law and the protection of names, which a silent copyright licence does not pass on. Combining a licence that is silent about endorsement with one that permits it shows a conflict marked as coming from this rule.

Basis Trademark and name rights are separate from copyright: Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 article 9 lets the proprietor of an EU trade mark prevent all third parties not having his consent from using the sign in the course of trade, and Directive (EU) 2015/2436 article 10, 15 U.S.C. 1114 and 1125(a), section 12 BGB and section 43 ABGB protect marks and names in the same way. The library's evidence is Creative Commons 4.0 section 2(b)(2): Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License. A copyright licence that is silent grants no right to use the licensor's name or marks to suggest endorsement (Worldwide)

Further terms

These are the things the license says about itself beyond the acts it permits, forbids and requires: when it ends, how long there is to put a breach right, which law governs it, and so on. A term that comes from the DALICC vocabulary links to its definition.

Patent license ends if you sue: Yes. Not a ban on suing: a patent claim over the work ends the patent license, or the whole license, as the text provides.
Cure period: 32 days
Field of use restriction: any purpose except providing a product that competes with the software or with a product the licensor or any of its affiliates provides using the software
Terminates on breach: Yes

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

As far as the law allows, the software comes as is, without any warranty or condition, and the licensor will not be liable to you for any damages arising out of these terms or the use or nature of the software, under any kind of legal claim.

Additional clauses

In order to get any license under these terms, you must agree to them as both strict obligations and conditions to all your licenses.

Info

Target asset types: Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://polyformproject.org/licenses/shield/1.0.0
Legal code: https://polyformproject.org/licenses/shield/1.0.0
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher: PolyForm Project
SPDX identifier: PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0 (provisional, the record declares none)
Version: 1.0.0
DALICC identifier: PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0

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.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0",
  "license-title": "PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0",
  "spdx-id": null,
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0" rel="license">PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge

Markdown

[![License: PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0](https://dalicc.net/license-library/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/PolyForm-Shield-1.0.0/badge.svg" alt="License: PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by: Giray Havur
Written on: 2026-09-22
Second review: not yet done
Record changed since this review: yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings: 12 recorded, 8 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The record models the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0. It is the PolyForm skeleton with a noncompete section in place of a noncommercial one: any purpose is permitted except providing a product that competes with the software or with a product the licensor provides using the software. Four further sections say what competing means, what happens when the licensor moves into your market, what happens when it leaves one, and who may enforce the clause after a sale of the business.

12 findings

info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

File name, record identifier and IRI local name agree. The triple is left out: the SPDX list carries the Noncommercial and Small Business PolyForm licences but not this one, and no identifier is invented. cc:legalcode and dct:source are the URL the licence text gives for itself.
minor Rubric 1 dct:source applied

The publisher's page for this licence answered with an HTTP 404 when the text was fetched, so the text quoted is the copy held by ScanCode LicenseDB, whose URL is in text_source. cc:legalcode still points at the publisher's own URL, which the licence text prints in its second line.
info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

dcmitype:Software only, the same as the other PolyForm records.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

The same three grants as PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0, so the permission set is the same. cc:CommercialUse is permitted: 'Any purpose is a permitted purpose, except for providing any product that competes with the software or any product the licensor or any of its affiliates provides using the software.'
major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination for 'If you make any written claim that the software infringes or contributes to infringement of any patent, your patent license for the software granted under these terms ends immediately.' dalicc:sublicense and dalicc:ChangeLicense for 'These terms do not allow you to sublicense or transfer any of your licenses to anyone else', read with the Notices section, which makes the terms travel with every copy. dalicc:promote is absent: the licence has no trademark or endorsement clause at all.
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

cc:Notice, cc:Attribution and cc:ShareAlike on odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive, for the Notices section, exactly as in PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0.
major Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer applied

The No Liability sentence is quoted whole into dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer, with the emphasis asterisks dropped. Fifteen further clauses are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses, including all five sections that build the noncompete.
major Rubric 7 dalicc:terminatesOnBreach applied

dalicc:terminatesOnBreach is true and dalicc:curePeriod is '32 days', which is the unusual figure the Violations section gives: 'The first time you are notified in writing that you have violated any of these terms ... your licenses can nonetheless continue if you come into full compliance with these terms, and take practical steps to correct past violations, within 32 days of receiving notice.' The cure is available once only. cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and the text names no governing law.
gap Rubric 8 dalicc:fieldOfUseRestriction none

The noncompete has no term. dalicc:fieldOfUseRestriction names it in a literal and the five sections are quoted. Proposed term: dalicc:competingProductRestriction, a rule action for providing a product that competes with the licensed work or with the licensor's own products, distinct from dalicc:competingServiceRestriction, which the Elastic and Redis licences need for a hosted service.
gap Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

The New Products section freezes a licensee on the versions available before the licensor brought its product into competition: 'you may continue using versions of the software available under these terms beforehand to provide your competing product, but not any later versions.' Nothing in the vocabulary can express a grant that covers some versions of a work and not others. Quoted. Proposed term: dalicc:versionScopedGrant.
info Rubric 9 record none

The consistency check of app.services.composer, run against licensedata/dependencygraph/dg_default.ttl, returned no conflicts.
major Rubric 10 record none

Against PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0 this record differs in one statement, cc:CommercialUse moving from prohibition to permission, and in the permitted-purpose clauses. It has no spdx:licenseId, which the Noncommercial and Small Business records do have.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

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.

Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

View version 2 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
4 changes
- changed permission cc:CommercialUse
  
  was permission cc:CommercialUse
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Any purpose is a permitted purpose, except for providing any product that competes with the software or any product the licensor or any of its affiliates provides using the software."
- changed prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  was prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "These terms do not allow you to sublicense or transfer any of your licenses to anyone else, or prevent the licensor from granting licenses to anyone else."
- changed prohibition dalicc:sublicense
  
  was prohibition dalicc:sublicense
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "These terms do not allow you to sublicense or transfer any of your licenses to anyone else, or prevent the licensor from granting licenses to anyone else."
- 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.
Version 1

Created from the license text on 2026-09-22 (Source-available licences and riders).

View version 1 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.