DMware is the document-management interoperability exchange operated with the institutional sponsorship of AIIM International. The subject matter of DMware is public, openly-contributed document-management software, documentation, and metadata definitions.
DMware accepts and redistributes any Open-Source Certified contributions that promote document-management and information-processing interoperability. The Simple DMware (SDM) Open-Source License applies to open-source projects based on the work of the Document Management Alliance (DMA) and of the Open Document Management API (ODMA) coalition.
The SDM license is available for application to other open-source projects. It encourages broad use with minimal risk of unintended copyright infringement. It also requires that derivatives and other works in any way based on the original work to be clearly distinguished from the original work, while also requiring acknowledgment and identification of the original work.
This is a draft of in-progress work. For access to the latest version and related information, visit
http://www.dmware.org.Last Updated 2002-09-03-21:43 -0700 (pdt)
(ed.), 1999 Technical Committee Chairman, AIIM Document Management Alliance
This is draft 0.01 of 2000-02-07
Content
1. Overview
2. Simple DMware Open-Source License version 1.0 (template)
3. Copyright Declaration
4. Disclaimers
5. Grant of Rights
6. Satisfaction of Open-Source Definition
7. References and Resources
Contributors
Change History
Simple DMware (SDM) Open-Source Licenses can be applied to any variety of works of authorship, including software. The basic characteristic is that derivative works of any kind are permitted and no further license is required. Permitted derivative works are not required to be distributed as open-source software under the same conditions and license as the original work. Models for the Simple DMware open-source license are the BSD License [*BSD], the MIT License [MITlicense], and other licenses such as the one provided by Henry Spencer with some widely-used library software [SpencerRegex]. Extension of the SDM to apply broadly to literary works (including software) was inspired by the work of the Open Source Writers Group (OSWG).
An important characteristics of the SDM is that an user of the work is not at risk of copyright infringement or license breach as a consequence of making and distributing a derivative, provided that other, easily-honored conditions of the license are satisfied. This removes technical uncertainties around being able to determine clearly whether any new work might be found to constitute a derivative of the licensed work or not. One can safely proceed as if the new work is a derivative, whether or not it is ever found to be so, and be assured of clear license to that new work by carrying out the simple, practically-valuable conditions of the SDM for licensed derivatives.
For authors of SDM-licensed works, there is no loss of copyright through the creation of derivatives by others, since no derivative work can pre-empt the copyright of the original, nor of portions of the original retained in the derivative. For users of the SDM-licensed work, the license-conforming creation of derivative works by themselves or others can in no way impede the continued use and availability of the original licensed work.
The key difference with respect to stricter open-source licenses, such as the GNU General Public License (GPL), is that derivative works are not required to be made available to the contributing community on the same conditions that the SDM-licensed work is. SDM-licensed works may be incorporated in, used by, or adapted in proprietary products as well as made the basis of further open-source works.
The SDM license conforms to the requirements of the Open Source Definition (OSD). As such, it joins a family of licenses that can be used to establish a work as open-source and freely usable. There are a variety of OSI approved licenses. Open-source contributors are encouraged to adopt an existing license that best fits their particular requirements and the spirit in which their open-source contribution is made.
The SDM is differentiated from well-known open-source licenses by the following combination of features:
- It is applicable to all works of original authorship (especially so-called literary works), including computer software. It is easily applied to an entire work consisting of documentation, computer programs, installation instructions, and other materials that comprise copyrightable subject matter.
- It is structured to provide clear notice of copyright, including identification of the copyrighted work and identification of the holder of the copyright.
- It is strictly a copyright license and applicable to copyrightable subject matter of the covered work. As such, it provides an automatic, non-exclusive, royalty free license to anyone who possesses a copy of the work or a substantial portion of the work (including a so-called binary form suitable for presentation, performance, or combination of the work with another work by operations of a digital computer).
- It provides for clearly-defined packaging of works that incorporate elements (e.g., licensed redistributables) authorized under and subject to different copyright and license conditions.
- It is oriented to encouraging widespread usage of the covered work, providing simple conditions by which users can extend, improve, adapt, and rely on the work with confidence that the license is satisfied.
- It promotes explicit accountability for the use of versions and editions of covered works in derivatives and in dependent usages.
The SDM shares a number of features of other open-source licenses:
- It establishes simple conditions by which a new, dependent work, including a potential derivative, can freely employ the SDM-licensed work without the new work having to be subject to the SDM license (although the creator of the new work may certainly choose to provide an SDM license).
- It provides for the explicit recognition of the authorship of the covered work and acknowledgment in other works based in any way on the covered work.
- It requires that (potential) derivatives be presented in such a way that their relationship to the covered work is cleary identified and that there can be no confusion with the covered work.
- Regardless of the conditions under which a (potential) derivative is distributed and licensed, the SDM-covered work is identified in such a way that users can independently review the status (e.g., defect reports, errata, work-arounds, and revisions) of the covered work and can independently obtain and employ the covered work.
Simple DMware Open-Source License version 1.0 template
Copyright Notice Copyright © <dates> by <Copyright holder>
Copyright Contact [<contact for copyright holder>]
Disclaimers
NO WARRANTY. THIS WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK REMAINS WITH YOU.LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORK OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE WORK.
License Title
Simple DMware Open-Source License version x.yLicense Contact This work is licensed under the Simple DMware Open-Source License version 1.0. For further information about this license and its application, consult the DMware Clearinghouse on the Internet at <license information location>. A copy of the full license statement is available at <license copy location>. Licensed Work <Identification, Manifest, and Reference Location of the Licensed Work> Grant of Rights You are hereby granted a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, and otherwise deal in the work, including the rights to use, copy, modify, reformat, translate, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the work, and to permit persons to whom the work is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 1. Preservation of Notice. The above copyright notice, disclaimers, and this license statement shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the work. 2. Redistribution. You may copy and distribute the work in unmodified form provided that the entire work, including all notices and licenses, is included. Recipients of the work are automatically granted this license without modification and may not be subject to any additional requirements whatsoever with regard to the subject matter of this license. [There are additional provisions to put in here. I went from here down to the requirements of the Open-Software Definition, first, to say how the SDM license will satisfy the OSD. Then I will come back here and put in the specific wordings for grant of rights. -- dh:2000-02-07]
[These sections will be filled in with explanatory material about the legitimate modified forms, where to provide notice of the copyright and notice, and so on. Meanwhile, there is information on the relationship to the Open-Source Definition ready for review.]
The following sections correspond to the provisions of the Open Source Definition, version 1.7, having the same titles. The accompanying statements demonstrate the SDM license's satisfaction of those provisions, point-by-point. Consult the published Open Source Definition [OSD] for further details and rationale.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that recipients be permitted to sell and to give away copies of the work as a component of a collection ("aggregate").
- The SDM places no restriction on the redistribution of the work in complete form, separately or as part of a compilation, so long as the work is not modified and the work is provided under cover of exactly the same license(s) as its original distribution (section 5.1, Preservation of Notice, and section 5.2, Redistribution).
- The SDM permits, but does not require, redistribution of copies at no charge. The fundamental grant of rights permits possessors of copies of the work to deal in the work in any way whatsoever, so long as
Version OSD 1.7 requires that licenses not require a royalty on sales of redistributions.
- All rights granted under the SDM are royalty free, as stipulated in the overall grant of rights (cf. section 5).
- All recipients of copies of the work are granted the same license and additional restrictions or conditions are not permitted (section 5.2, Redistribution).
Version OSD 1.7 requires that computer source code be included for computer programs and that redistribution of the source code is allowed as well as redistribution in "compiled form."
Draft Approach: The approach in the SDM is to define "complete work" and to allow that to extend to more than computer programs. The idea is that when less than the complete work is distributed, there be a connection to the complete work, and that the original work be readily obtainable, including program source codes.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that distributions of software in a form without source code be accompanied by a "well-publicized" means for recipients to obtain the source code at a reasonable cost.
- DMware: Accompany distributions in a form that omit the complete work with a clear notification and description of a means for obtaining the complete, open-source work without difficulty and at nominal cost, if any.
- Electronic versions of complete works deposited in the DMware clearinghouse may be used for this purpose.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that the source code be the "preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program." A qualifying distribution under Version OSD 1.7 cannot have deliberately obfuscated source code or the output of a preprocessor or translator in place of source code.
Concern: This is problematic. It also is not implemented as part of most Open Source Approved licenses. This is a practice and is not something that it makes sense to say about copyrightable subject matter. The DMware clearinghouse has requirements for accountability and reproducibility and completeness that cover this as a matter of practice. It seems irrelevant to make this a matter of a license of copyright and I propose to not speak about it in the body of the SDM at all, but apply it to the practices around contributions to DMware.
Version OSD 1.7 requires the license to allow modifications and derived works.
- SDM places no limitation on the form of works that may be created as modifications, derivatives, and any other works dependent on the covered work in any way whatsoever.
Version OSD 1.7 requires the permitted modifications and derived works to be distributable under the same terms as the license of the original software.
- SDM places no limitation on the form of license that covers new covered subject matter of modifications, derivatives, and any other works dependent on the covered work in any way whatsoever.
- SDM is available for use and application to the original works of authorship introduced in modifications, derivatives, and any other works dependent on the covered work in any way whatsoever.
DMware - Provenance and Accountability Condition: When a derivative work is produced and distributed, the recipient of the derivative work is notified of the complete SDM-licensed work on which the derivative is based and is offered unrestricted access to that complete work (e.g., in the DMware clearinghouse).
DMware - Substitution Interoperability Condition: For modified or derived works that are intended to be substitutable for use of the original work in operation on the same computer systems, the substitution must be clearly identifiied as such and all additional installation and configuration requirements for preserving continued substitution interoperability must be perpetuated in the use of the substitute work.
Version OSD 1.7 permits distribution in modified form to be limited to patch files, so that the form of the original authorship is preserved.
- SDM does not limit the form of modifications of the covered work.
- SDM does require that the specific unmodified work on which a modification, derivative, or other dependent work is based be explicitly and accurately identified and that the complete unmodified work be available (cf. sections 6.2 and 6.3, above).
Version OSD 1.7 requires that users of the original work be explicitly permitted to distribute software built from programs of the modified work.
- SDM does not speak to this directly other than as part of the overall grant of rights.
- None of the conditions on exercise of the license limit this ability.
Version OSD 1.7 permits licenses to require that derived works carry a different name or version number from the original work.
DMware - Source Integrity and Separability Condition: Derived works are distinctly identified, avoiding confusion with the original work or subsequent versions of the original work. If the source-code of the derived work is distributed, the original source-code is clearly identified and kept intact in a separable form together with its covering licenses.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that the license not be confined to or excluded from any person or group of persons.
- The SDM neither identifies, excludes, nor favors any persons or groups of persons.
- The SDM is granted automatically to anyone in possession of a copy of the covered work.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that the licensed work not be excluded from use in any field of endeavor.
- The SDM is solely a copyright license. It contains no statements with regard the use of the work in any field of endeavor whatsoever.
- The SDM is granted automatically to anyone in possession of a copy of the covered work.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that the rights granted by the license apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of any additional license.
- The SDM license is granted automatically to anyone who possesses a copy of the covered work, regardless of how it is obtained.
- The SDM specifically applies to recipients of redistributions of the work, and there may not be any added restriction or qualification on the exercise of that license with respect to the covered work (section 5.2, Redistribution).
Version OSD 1.7 requires that the licensing of the covered work not depend on the work being provided as part of particular distribution (aggregation or packaging).
- SDM requires that the license be affixed or associated with the complete covered work in a way where the covered work is separable as an independent whole containing a copy of the SDM.
- The SDM places no requirement on how the covered work is packaged or distributed within or separate from an aggregation.
- The SDM explicitly permits separation of the covered work and its independent use and redistribution regardless of the aggregated form in which it is received, as if it was received separately along with the covering SDM license.
DMware: Maintain separability when works and derivatives are combined and/or incorporated in larger works. The original work can be extracted and distributed with its covering license.
Version OSD 1.7 requires that there be no restrictions on other software that may be distributed (e.g., aggregated with) the covered work.
- The SDM license is solely a copyright license. It applies only to the covered work and makes no statement about the nature of any works with which the covered work might be aggregated or used in some way, including any license applicable to the aggregation.
- The SDM applies solely to the covered work, which is identified as part of the SDM statement carried with the complete work and any substantial portion thereof.
- The SDM license of a work provides explicit identification of the covered work and of any individual elements organized as part of that work.
- The SDM license explicitly identifies the material (such as licensed redistributables from other parties) that is incorporated in the covered work under the provisions of other licenses, so that those works are not contaminated by the SDM-covered subject matter, and vice versa.
- [*BSD]
- The BSD License. Template. An OSI approved license published on the web at
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html. University of California (Berkeley: 1998).- [DMA]
- Document Management Alliance. AIIM International. Coalition created in April, 1995, to produce a single document-management interoperability interface specification based on the separate work of the Document Enabled Networking initiative and the Shamrock Coalition.
- [GPL]
- The GNU General Public License. version 2, June 1991. An OSI approved license published on the web at
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.html. Free Software Foundation (Boston, MA: 1989, 1991).- [MITlicense]
- MIT License. Template. An OSI approved license published on the web at
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html. Open Source Initiative (California: 1999).- [OSD]
- The Open Source Definition. Version 1.7 published on the web at
http://www.opensource.org/osd.html. Open Source Initiative. A key definition of the qualities of an open-source license and the terms and conditions that apply to software that is approved as OSI Certified.- [OSI]
- Open Source Initiative. web site at
http://www.opensource.org. Open Source Initiative (California: 1999).- [OSImark]
- The OSI Certification Mark and Program. published on the web at
http://www.opensource.org/certification-mark.html. Open Source Initiative (California: 1999). OSI has developed a two-step certification process. A license is reviewed for conforming to the Open Source Definition and then approved. Distributions of software under that approved license may be identified as OSI Certified Open Source, using the OSI Certification Mark. A number of open-source licenses are already OSI approved, including the GPL and LGPL. The SDM license has not been reviewed, although the intention is for it to be fully conformant.- [OSWGpolicy]
- . Open Source Writers Group: Document Licensing Policy. published on the web at
http://ww.oswg.org/oswg-nightly/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/OSWG-Licensing-Policy/.
The following people contributed to the development of this document:
- , 1999 DMA Technical Committee Chair,
- editor; principal author
- draft 0.01 2000-02-07 Create Initial Draft for Conceptual Review (orcmid)
- Initial annotated license based on exploration of existing licenses and the approach arrived at in formulating DMware model draft 0.04 (still in progress). This is a basic sketch for initial review. The overview is refined to establish the benefits of the SDM with regard to clarity for users and adapters of the licensed works, as well as simplicity of compliance. I started going through the Open Source Definition and was stopped on some things around clause 2 on what constitutes acceptable source code. I have annotated the parts and am circulating this for early review, although there are still empty sections and the license conditions are not fully stated in the specimen model of the license. 2001-07-06: Some editorial touch-ups are made, without any alteration of content.
created on 2000-01-03-12:05 by Dennis E. Hamilton (orcmid)
$$Author: Orcmid $
$$Date: 02-09-03 21:50 $
$$Revision: 8 $
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