Policies/en/Licensing-Policy
This is a draft version. Source: adapted notably from the Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki, https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy (CC BY-SA 4.0), with changes. Status: proposal, to be adopted. See the detailed disclaimer.
In simple words: everything published on WikiDeal (contract templates, governance documents, wiki pages) is meant to stay free: free to read, free to reuse, free to improve. This page proposes the licensing rules that would guarantee this freedom: which free licenses apply, and the rare, strictly limited exceptions for non-free material (for example the logo of an organization inside a documented contract).
Licensing policy
Once adopted, this policy would guarantee that the content hosted on the WikiDeal platform remains free, in line with the licenses described on the Licensing page.
Applicable definitions
- Market or Portal
- A specific space of the WikiDeal platform in a certain language or multilingual, such as a Market of contract templates or a governance Portal. The Markets and the Portals are collectively called "the Platform".
- Free Content License
- A license which meets the terms of the Definition of Free Cultural Works specific to licenses, as can be found at https://freedomdefined.org/Definition/1.0 version 1.0.
- Exemption Doctrine Policy (EDP)
- A policy specific to a Market or Portal, in accordance with Swiss law and the law of countries where the content is predominantly accessed (if any), that recognizes the limitations of copyright law (including case law) as applicable to that Market or Portal, and permits the upload of copyrighted materials that can be legally used in its context, regardless of their licensing status.
Licenses in use
The reference licenses of the platform are described on the Licensing page:
- Content (contract templates, governance documents, wiki pages, documentation): Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Software: GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3).
Both are Free Content Licenses in the sense of this policy.
What this policy does not cover: the private data of the users. Variables entered in a contract (names, amounts, addresses, bank details) are private data of the parties, not published content. They are covered by the Privacy policy, not by this licensing policy. This policy applies to the content that is published by design: contract templates, governance documents, wiki pages and documentation.
Policy
Whereas the WikiDeal platform aims at empowering people around the world to create, share and improve fair contracts under a free content license:
- All Markets and Portals are expected to host only content which is under a Free Content License, or which is otherwise free as recognized by the Definition of Free Cultural Works referenced above.
- In addition, each Market or Portal community may develop and adopt an EDP. Non-free content used under an EDP would have to be identified in a machine-readable format, so that it can be easily identified by users of the Platform as well as by re-users.
- Such EDPs must be minimal. Their use, with limited exception, would be to illustrate historically significant events, to include identifying protected works such as logos (for example the logo of an organization that is party to a documented contract), or to complement (within narrow limits) pages about copyrighted contemporary works. An EDP may not allow material where someone could reasonably be expected to provide a freely licensed file for the same purpose. Any content used under an EDP would have to be replaced with a freely licensed work whenever one is available which serves the same purpose.
- Media used under EDPs would be subject to deletion if they lack an applicable rationale. They would have to be used only in the context of other freely licensed content.
- Upon adoption of this policy, transition measures and deadlines would be defined for existing media that do not comply: deletion of newly uploaded files under an unacceptable license, and a review process for existing files, following the model of the source resolution.