{"id":"W3C","title":"W3C Software Notice and License (2002-12-31)","reviewed_on":"2026-09-15","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2002/copyright-software-20021231.html","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"Models the 2002 W3C Software Notice and License, which is a different text from the 2015 W3C Software and Document Notice and License the library already holds as W3cSoftwareAndDocumentNoticeAndLicense. The existing record was not touched. Nothing here is legal advice.","findings":[{"rubric":2,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:target","description":"The text licenses \"this work (and included software, documentation such as READMEs, or other related items)\", so the asset collection carries dalicc:CreativeWork next to dcmitype:Software. The 2015 record also carries dcmitype:Dataset, which the 2002 wording does not support.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"The grant reads \"Permission to copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation, with or without modification, for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the software and documentation or portions thereof, including modifications\". Commercial use is permitted because the grant is for any purpose.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"The text states \"The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to the software without specific, written prior permission\", so dalicc:promote is a prohibition. \"without fee or royalty\" gives the dalicc:chargeDistributionFee prohibition that the 2015 record also carries, and dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited because the notice must travel unchanged. (Corrected on 2026-09-15 by the verification of this review group: see the rubric 3 finding on relicensing below.)","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"The grant lists three things that must be included on all copies: \"The full text of this NOTICE in a location viewable to users of the redistributed or derivative work\"; any pre-existing intellectual property disclaimers, notices or terms; and \"Notice of any changes or modifications to the files, including the date changes were made\". The first two are cc:Notice and cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive; the third is dalicc:modificationNotice on odrl:modify and odrl:derive.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The grant paragraph with its three bullet requirements and the trademark and title paragraph are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses, including the sentence \"Title to copyright in this software and any associated documentation will at all times remain with copyright holders\". The two disclaimer paragraphs are quoted word for word in their own predicates.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"The text names no legal system and sets no term, so cc:jurisdiction is dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer with the dependency graph dg_default returned an empty conflict list.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"major","field":"record","description":"Follows licensedata/licenses/W3cSoftwareAndDocumentNoticeAndLicense.ttl, which holds the 2015 text under the SPDX identifier W3C-20150513. The 2002 notice removes the ambiguous grant of \"use\" that earlier versions had and does not cover documents as a separate category, which is why this record leaves out dcmitype:Dataset. dalicc:variantKind is \"edition\", matching the existing record.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Library convention 15: a licence that asks for no reciprocity and no source code asks only that the notice travels with the copy, which is a duty on the acts it governs and not a bar on putting the copy under other terms. dalicc:ChangeLicense is therefore a permission here, and the prohibition the earlier reading wrote is removed. The text reads: \"Permission to copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation, with or without modification, for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the software and documentation or portions thereof, including modifications: The full text of this NOTICE in a location viewable to users of the redistributed or derivative work.\" The permission carries the dalicc:compliantLicense duty, as Apache-2.0 does, because the notice has to survive the relicensing.","action":"applied"}],"family":"Python, PHP, Unicode and W3C","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"edition","notes":"The closing Notes section of the source, which explains what changed in the 2002 formulation, is not part of the terms and is not quoted in the record."}