{"id":"CECILL-C","title":"CeCILL-C Free Software License Agreement","reviewed_on":"2026-09-15","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://spdx.org/licenses/CECILL-C.html","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"CeCILL-C, the file level reciprocal agreement of the CeCILL family: an Integrated Contribution puts the whole Modified Software under the agreement, while a Derivative Software that only adds a Related Module may go out under another licence. The record models the first as cc:ShareAlike duties on distribution, modification and derivation, following the MPL-1.1 and CDDL-1.1 records, and quotes the second, because the consistency check does not allow a dalicc:ChangeLicense permission beside a share-alike duty.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"minor","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"The record carries the SPDX id CECILL-C, the SPDX name as dct:title and the family spellings as dct:alternative. dalicc:variantKind is \"edition\": CeCILL-B and CeCILL-C are not versions of the CeCILL agreement the library holds as CeaCnrsInriaLogicielLibreLicenseVersion21 but two sibling agreements published beside it, with their own reciprocity.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software, as on the existing CeaCnrsInriaLogicielLibreLicenseVersion21 record. The agreement defines the Software as its object throughout and names no other kind of material.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Article 5 grants the right of use (\"permanent or temporary reproduction of all or part of the Software by any or all means and in any or all form\", loading, displaying, running and storing it), the right to make modifications, including a Derivative Software and the right of distribution, which \"includes the right to publish, transmit and communicate the Software to the general public on any or all medium, and by any or all means, and the right to market, either in consideration of a fee, or free of charge, one or more copies\". The record therefore permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works, modified works, the distribution fee and the licence fee. dalicc:patentGrant carries the undertaking in Article 5 not to enforce the Licensor's patents against licensees, which is a covenant not to sue rather than an express grant; the sentence is quoted so the difference stays visible.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"No prohibition is written. The agreement has no trademark or endorsement clause: what Article 9.4 says about the name of the Software is a disclaimer of warranty and liability, not a bar on use of the name. The existing CeaCnrsInriaLogicielLibreLicenseVersion21 record prohibits dalicc:promote and dalicc:addStatement; neither is supported by the CeCILL-B or CeCILL-C text, and dalicc:addStatement is in fact required by Article 5.3.4 of CeCILL-B. That record was not edited; the divergence is reported.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer","description":"Articles 9.3 and 9.4 are quoted in dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and Article 8 in dalicc:LiabilityLimitation. Article 7.2 goes into dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance, because it lets a Licensor offer a warranty of its own under terms it is free to decide. dalicc:additionalClauses carries the purpose, acceptance, term, patent, distribution, intellectual property, termination, language, new versions and governing law articles. Note for the consolidation: the existing CeCILL 2.1 record puts Article 8, the liability article, into dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and carries no dalicc:LiabilityLimitation; this record separates the two.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"CeCILL-C is file level reciprocal, so cc:ShareAlike hangs off odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive rather than off the odrl:Set: Article 5.3.2 says that \"when the Licensee makes an Integrated Contribution to the Software, the terms and conditions for the distribution of the resulting Modified Software become subject to all the provisions of this Agreement\", while Article 5.3.3 lets a Derivative Software that only adds a Related Module go out under another agreement. This is the attachment the MPL-1.1 and CDDL-1.1 records of this review use for the same shape. cc:Notice and dalicc:noWarrantyNotice come from Article 5.3.1 and 5.3.2, cc:SourceCode from the effective access those articles require, cc:Attribution and dalicc:modificationNotice from Articles 5.2 and 6.4. dalicc:ChangeLicense is not written although Article 5.3.3 allows it for a Derivative Software: consistency_check reports a required cc:ShareAlike together with a permitted dalicc:ChangeLicense as a direct conflict, so the article is quoted instead.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"major","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and Article 13 is quoted instead: \"The Agreement is governed by French law. The Parties agree to endeavor to seek an amicable solution to any disagreements or disputes that may arise during the performance of the Agreement.\" French law governs the contract; the rights granted are not limited to French territory, and Article 11.5 gives the French and English versions equal force. dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual, from Article 4.2: the Agreement \"shall remain in force for the entire legal term of protection of the economic rights over the Software\".","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Article 10.1 terminates the agreement thirty days after an ineffective notice of breach, and Article 10.2 keeps the licences granted before termination alive. Quoted; proposed terms dalicc:terminatesOnBreach and dalicc:sublicenseSurvival.","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Article 5.3.4 makes the credits, respectively the notice of rights, optional where the Modified Software contains a contribution under another agreement of the CeCILL family. That conditional relaxation of a duty has no term; the article is quoted. Proposed term dalicc:compatibleLicenseTest, as in another review group.","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:orLaterVersionOption","description":"Article 12.3 lets a licensee use software distributed under a given version of the agreement under any later version. As in the other records of this addition the property was not written outside the GNU family; the triple would be dalicclib:CECILL-C dalicc:orLaterVersionOption true.","action":"proposed"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer with the axioms of dg_default returned an empty conflict list.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"Family: the record follows the existing CeaCnrsInriaLogicielLibreLicenseVersion21 record for its metadata and its software target and the MPL family of this review for its deontic shape. CeCILL-B and CeCILL-C share every clause outside Article 5.3 and Article 6; what separates them is exactly the reciprocity, which is why the CeCILL-C record carries four cc:ShareAlike duties and the CeCILL-B record carries none and permits dalicc:ChangeLicense instead.","action":"none"}],"family":"CeCILL","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"edition","notes":"Modelled from the SPDX plain text, which is the official English version of the agreement; Article 11.5 states that the French and English versions have equal force, and cc:legalcode points at the English text on the cecill.info site. No long dash appears in the source text. The existing CeCILL 2.1 record was not edited, although its dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer holds the liability article."}