{"id":"GPL-3.0-only-with-GPL-3.0-linking-exception","title":"GNU General Public License 3 with GPL-3.0 Linking Exception","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GPL-3.0-only.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models GPL version 3 with the linking exception that several OCaml and Ada libraries carry. It keeps every statement of the GPL-3.0-only record and adds one permission for the work that results from linking the program with the library the notice names. The exception text is a template with two placeholders, so the record models the shape of the permission and not one particular combination.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"File name, record identifier, IRI local name and title agree. spdx:licenseId carries the SPDX expression \"GPL-3.0-only WITH GPL-3.0-linking-exception\": the base identifier, one space, WITH in capitals, one space, the exception identifier. No record in the library carried an expression before, so the SPDX mapping and the spdx route have to accept the space and the keyword.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"cc:legalcode","description":"cc:legalcode points at the text of the base licence, https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html, because that is the licence the record models. dct:source points at the SPDX page of the exception, https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0-linking-exception.html, because that is where the additional permission is published.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"odrl:target is the one the base record carries: an odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software. The exception is about program files, so nothing changes.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"The whole exception reads: \"If you modify this Program, or any covered work, by linking or combining it with [name of library] (or a modified version of that library), containing parts covered by the terms of [name of library's license], the licensors of this Program grant you additional permission to convey the resulting work.\" The resulting work is material the share-alike condition no longer reaches, which is the permission dalicc:exceptedCombination.","action":"applied","change":"odrl:permission [ a odrl:Permission ;\n        odrl:action dalicc:exceptedCombination ] ;\n"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Every permission of GPL-3.0-only is kept, in the same place and with the same duties. An exception adds an additional permission to a licence; it never takes a granted right away.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"The exception lets the combined result travel under other terms, and the vocabulary cannot say that of a part of a work. The exception says: \"the licensors of this Program grant you additional permission to convey the resulting work\". A dalicc:ChangeLicense permission would say the licence of the covered work itself may be replaced, which is false and would contradict the whole-work share-alike duty. The record therefore keeps the prohibition, states the narrowed reach in dalicc:reciprocityScope and quotes the clause. Proposed term: dalicc:combinedWorkRelicensing, a permission for putting a larger work that contains the covered material under other terms.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:duty","description":"The licence-wide cc:ShareAlike duty stays on the odrl:Set. The exception lifts the duty for the resulting work only, which dalicc:reciprocityScope states.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The exception text is quoted verbatim as one literal, taken from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GPL-3.0-linking-exception.txt. Line breaks and the indentation of the source file are collapsed to single spaces, which is how every clause literal in the library is written; the wording is untouched. The warranty disclaimer and the liability limitation are the ones the base record quotes from the base licence.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The quoted clause keeps the two placeholders of the published text, \"[name of library]\" and \"[name of library's license]\", because they are what the SPDX text says. They are the licence's own words and not a value left open by the reviewer, so the family rule that looks for a literal filled with a placeholder word does not reach them.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType stays dalicc:perpetual: the exception names no territory and no term. The termination clause of the base licence still applies, and the record says no more about it than the base record does.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:exceptedCombination","description":"The exception carves the combination out of the condition of the licence, not out of its grant. dalicc:exemptedMaterial says the opposite and is prohibited on OGL-UK-1.0, OGL-UK-2.0 and NLOD-2.0, where it means material the licence never granted. The vocabulary defines dalicc:exceptedCombination for this side of it since 2026-09-23, and the record carries it as a permission.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The library that the exception covers is named by the licensor when the notice is written, and no term can hold that name. The record cannot say which combination is permitted, only that one is. Proposed term: dalicc:exceptedCombinationSubject, an annotation naming the work the exception lets the covered work be combined with.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"app.services.composer.consistency_check with the default dependency graph reports 0 conflicts for this record. dalicc:exceptedCombination takes part in no dependency relation, so it neither creates nor hides one.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The nearest siblings are GPL-3.0-only-with-GCC-exception-3.1 and LGPL-3.0-only-with-LGPL-3.0-linking-exception, which this addition creates in another set of records. All three are additional permissions under section 7 of GPL version 3; this one is the shortest and the only one written as a template.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote was prohibited and no sentence of this text supports it. The statement was the library's reading of a legal default, that a copyright licence which says nothing about endorsement grants no right to it, and it sat in 519 of 581 records as a house convention. That reading is now an adopted dalicc:DefaultRule of the core dependency graph, which supplies it to every licence that is silent about the action, so a compatibility check reaches the same answer and the record states only what the text states. Removed on 2026-09-23; see section 13 of docs/LICENSE_REVIEW.md.","action":"applied","change":"# removed\nodrl:prohibition [ a odrl:Prohibition ;\n        odrl:action dalicc:promote ] ;\n"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance","description":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance held the whole sentence of Section 4, \"You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.\" Its first half is the permission to charge for a copy, which the record states as dalicc:chargeDistributionFee, and not a warranty clause. The literal now quotes only the second half, \"you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee\".","action":"applied"}],"family":"GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"exception","variant_of":"GPL-3.0-only","notes":"The licensor fills the two placeholders in when applying the exception, so the name of the library and the name of its licence are not facts about the licence text. A compatibility answer computed from this record is about the shape of the permission; the notice on the work decides which library it covers."}