[Esip-documentation] Question on licensing of "Attribute Convention for Data Discovery 1.3" wiki page content

[Bob Simons - NOAA Federal]

My personal take on this (not speaking officially for the Documentation
Cluster) is:

1) "Is ESIP fine with an Apache licensed implementation of the ACDD
specification?"

I love the Apache license, but perhaps not in this case. It opens up the
possibility of others making changes (e.g., changing the attribute names or
changing the definitions), which (I think) we don't want. But I hope the
current license isn't an impediment (see below).

2) "How much of the documentation can be copied to assist with the
implementation?"

I personally don't interpret SIS's (or anyone's) references to ACDD and
quotations from ACDD as constituting a copy of ACDD (which you are then
distributing) or a derivative work (since you aren't making a new Attribute
Convention derived from ACDD). So I think/hope that your references and
quotations don't trigger the Copy-Left aspects of the GFDL license. I (and
I hope everyone in the Documentation Cluster) am happy that you are
following ACDD's conventions, including quotes from ACDD, and attributing
the quotes to ACDD. I personally prefer that you include the entire
description of an attribute (since it is more accurate and complete) rather
than just the first sentence.

3) "Is the ACDD specification under GFDL license, or only the wiki site?"

I think that the GFDL is a policy that ESIP applied to its Wiki, not a
license that the Documentation Cluster consciously applied to ACDD. But it
appears that ACDD, since it is published on the ESIP Wiki, falls under
GFDL. Again, I think/hope that your references and quotations don't trigger
the Copy-Left aspects of the GFDL license.

---
I find it hard to believe that ESIP or the Documentation Cluster or anyone
in it would legally object to SIS (or other groups) including quotations
from and references to ACDD in other works when the intention is to follow
the ACDD conventions.

Thank you for utilizing/following the ACDD conventions. That is what they
are for.

Best wishes.






On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 2:40 AM, Martin Desruisseaux via Esip-documentation
<esip-documentation at lists.esipfed.org> wrote:

> Hello all
>
> I'm a contributor of the Apache Spatial Information System (SIS) project
> [1] from the Apache Software Foundation. The project implements the
> "Attribute Convention for Data Discovery (ACDD)" [2] specification from
> ESIP in our netCDF file reader. For making maintenance easier, SIS
> reproduces part of ACDD documentation in its own documentation. However the
> bottom of ESIP wiki page said that the content is licensed under GNU Free
> Documentation License (GFDL) 1.2, which would imply that it can not be
> included in Apache projects. After a short discussion on Apache Legal [3],
> we wanted to ask a few questions:
>
>    - Is ESIP fine with an Apache licensed implementation of the ACDD
>    specification?
>    - How much of the documentation can be copied to assist with the
>    implementation?
>    - Is the ACDD specification under GFDL license, or only the wiki site?
>
> Thanks,
>
>     Martin
>
> [1] http://sis.apache.org
> [2] http://wiki.esipfed.org/index.php/Attribute_Convention_for_Data_Discovery_1-3
> [3] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-311
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Esip-documentation mailing list
> Esip-documentation at lists.esipfed.org
> http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/listinfo/esip-documentation
>
>


-- 
Sincerely,

Bob Simons
IT Specialist
Environmental Research Division
NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center
99 Pacific St., Suite 255A      (New!)
Monterey, CA 93940               (New!)
Phone: (831)333-9878            (New!)
Fax:   (831)648-8440
Email: bob.simons at noaa.gov

The opinions in this message are mine personally and do
not necessarily reflect any position of the U.S. Government
or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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