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Re: W3C FSA (Final Specification Agreement)



Thorsten Glaser <tg@debian.org> writes:

> Please keep me in Cc as I’m not subscribed to the list.

Done, but if you want to continue this discussion please do subscribe so
you don't miss messages.

> I don’t think this has been covered yet, and, while I don’t have
> immediate need for this, it awoke my curiosity.

Is there a specific Debian package (or ITP report) for this work?

> From https://github.com/w3c/musicxml/issues/114 I see that the
> latest version of the MusicXML standard is published under the
> W3C FSA

To allow the archives to retain the context for the discussion, and
because the same URL can often lead to a different text at a later date,
we prefer to have the text being discussed reproduced verbatim:

> “The FSA Deed is available at:
> https://www.w3.org/community/about/agreements/fsa-deed/

=====
W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA) Deed

Each Community and Business Group Final Specification includes this
copyright statement:

    Copyright © [YEAR(S)] the Contributors to the [Name/Version
    Information] Specification, published by the W3C [Name of
    Community/Business Group] under the W3C Community Final
    Specification Agreement (FSA). A human-readable summary is
    available.

Note for Editors: For markup boilerplate, please see the Report
Requirements.

Summary of Key License Terms

The W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA) expresses the full
agreement between the parties that signed the agreement (“I” in the
license agreement) and you (“you” in the license agreement). The
following is a handy, human-readable expression of key terms of the FSA.
This summary is not the actual agreement. This summary has no legal
value or effect and its contents do not appear in the actual agreement.
What Signers Give under the Final Specification Agreement (FSA)

Under the FSA, signers give everyone:

    Copyright – a royalty-free license to use the copyrights for the
    entire Specification; see section 2 of the agreement.
    Patent – a commitment to license on a royalty-free basis their
    essential patent claims reading on the entire Specification; see
    section 3 and 10 of the agreement as well as section 7 regarding
    transition to the W3C Recomendation Track.

What the Community Gets

The community is free to:

    Share – copy and distribute the Specification.
    Modify the Specification – make new versions of the Specification.
    If you make new versions of the Specification you must include
    attribution to the original Specification (but not in any way that
    suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
    Implement the Specification – secure the royalty-free rights from
    signers necessary to implement the specification.

Use of Trademark

See section 4 of the agreement.

Representations, Warranties and Disclaimers

See section 9 of the agreement.
=====

> “The FSA agreement itself is at:
> https://www.w3.org/community/about/agreements/final/

=====
W3C Community Final Specification Agreement

To secure commitments from participants for the full text of a Community
or Business Group Report, the group may call for voluntary commitments
to the following terms; a summary is available. See also the related W3C
Community Contributor License Agreement.

    1. The Purpose of this Agreement.
    This Agreement sets forth the terms under which I make certain
    copyright and patent rights available to you for your implementation
    of the Specification. Any other capitalized terms not specifically
    defined herein have the same meaning as those terms have in the W3C
    Patent Policy, and if not defined there, in the W3C Process
    Document.

    2. Copyrights.

        2.1. Copyright Grant. I grant to you a perpetual (for the
        duration of the applicable copyright), worldwide, non-exclusive,
        no-charge, royalty-free, copyright license, without any
        obligation for accounting to me, to reproduce, prepare
        derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform,
        sublicense, distribute, and implement the Specification to the
        full extent of my copyright interest in the Specification.

        2.2. Attribution. As a condition of the copyright grant, you
        must include an attribution to the Specification in any
        derivative work you make based on the Specification. That
        attribution must include, at minimum, the Specification name and
        version number.

    3. Patents.

        3.1. Patent Licensing Commitment. I agree to license my
        Essential Claims under the W3C Community RF Licensing
        Requirements. This requirement includes Essential Claims that I
        own and any that I have the right to license without obligation
        of payment or other consideration to an unrelated third party.
        W3C Community RF Licensing Requirements obligations made
        concerning the Specification and described in this policy are
        binding on me for the life of the patents in question and
        encumber the patents containing Essential Claims, regardless of
        changes in participation status or W3C Membership. I also agree
        to license my Essential Claims under the W3C Community RF
        Licensing Requirements in derivative works of the Specification
        so long as all normative portions of the Specification are
        maintained and that this licensing commitment does not extend to
        any portion of the derivative work that was not included in the
        Specification.

        3.2. Optional, Additional Patent Grant. In addition to the
        provisions of Section 3.1, I may also, at my option, make
        certain intellectual property rights infringed by
        implementations of the Specification, including Essential
        Claims, available by providing those terms via the W3C Web site.

    4. No Other Rights. Except as specifically set forth in this
    Agreement, no other express or implied patent, trademark, copyright,
    or other property rights are granted under this Agreement, including
    by implication, waiver, or estoppel.

    5. Antitrust Compliance. I acknowledge that I may compete with other
    participants, that I am under no obligation to implement the
    Specification, that each participant is free to develop competing
    technologies and standards, and that each party is free to license
    its patent rights to third parties, including for the purpose of
    enabling competing technologies and standards.

    6. Non-Circumvention. I agree that I will not intentionally take or
    willfully assist any third party to take any action for the purpose
    of circumventing my obligations under this Agreement.

    7. Transition to W3C Recommendation Track. The Specification
    developed by the Project may transition to the W3C Recommendation
    Track. The W3C Team is responsible for notifying me that a
    Corresponding Working Group has been chartered. I have no obligation
    to join the Corresponding Working Group. If the Specification
    developed by the Project transitions to the W3C Recommendation
    Track, the following terms apply:

        7.1. If I join the Corresponding Working Group. If I join the
        Corresponding Working Group, I will be subject to all W3C rules,
        obligations, licensing commitments, and policies that govern
        that Corresponding Working Group.

        7.2. If I Do Not Join the Corresponding Working Group.

            7.2.1. Licensing Obligations to Resulting Specification. If
            I do not join the Corresponding Working Group, I agree to
            offer patent licenses according to the W3C Royalty-Free
            licensing requirements described in Section 5 of the W3C
            Patent Policy for the portions of the Specification included
            in the resulting Recommendation. This licensing commitment
            does not extend to any portion of an implementation of the
            Recommendation that was not included in the Specification.
            This licensing commitment may not be revoked but may be
            modified through the exclusion process defined in Section 4
            of the W3C Patent Policy. I am not required to join the
            Corresponding Working Group to exclude patents from the W3C
            Royalty-Free licensing commitment, but must otherwise follow
            the normal exclusion procedures defined by the W3C Patent
            Policy. The W3C Team will notify me of any Call for
            Exclusion in the Corresponding Working Group as set forth in
            Section 4.5 of the W3C Patent Policy.

            7.2.2. No Disclosure Obligation. If I do not join the
            Corresponding Working Group, I have no patent disclosure
            obligations outside of those set forth in Section 6 of the
            W3C Patent Policy.

    8. Conflict of Interest. I will disclose significant relationships
    when those relationships might reasonably be perceived as creating a
    conflict of interest with my role. I will notify W3C of any change
    in my affiliation using W3C-provided mechanisms.

    9. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimers. I represent and
    warrant that I am legally entitled to grant the rights and promises
    set forth in this Agreement. IN ALL OTHER RESPECTS THE SPECIFICATION
    IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” The entire risk as to implementing or otherwise
    using the Specification is assumed by the implementer and user.
    Except as stated herein, I expressly disclaim any warranties
    (express, implied, or otherwise), including implied warranties of
    merchantability, non-infringement, fitness for a particular purpose,
    or title, related to the Specification. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY PARTY
    BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER PARTY FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY FORM OF
    INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY
    CHARACTER FROM ANY CAUSES OF ACTION OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THIS
    AGREEMENT, WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING
    NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE OTHER PARTY HAS
    BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. All of my
    obligations under Section 3 regarding the transfer, successors in
    interest, or assignment of Granted Claims will be satisfied if I
    notify the transferee or assignee of any patent that I know contains
    Granted Claims of the obligations under Section 3. Nothing in this
    Agreement requires me to undertake a patent search.

    10. Definitions.

        10.1. Agreement. “Agreement” means this W3C Community Final
        Specification Agreement.

        10.2. Corresponding Working Group. “Corresponding Working Group”
        is a W3C Working Group that is chartered to develop a
        Recommendation, as defined in the W3C Process Document, that
        takes the Specification as an input.

        10.3. Essential Claims. “Essential Claims” shall mean all claims
        in any patent or patent application in any jurisdiction in the
        world that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of
        the Specification. A claim is necessarily infringed hereunder
        only when it is not possible to avoid infringing it because
        there is no non-infringing alternative for implementing the
        normative portions of the Specification. Existence of a
        non-infringing alternative shall be judged based on the state of
        the art at the time of the publication of the Specification. The
        following are expressly excluded from and shall not be deemed to
        constitute Essential Claims:

            10.3.1. any claims other than as set forth above even if
            contained in the same patent as Essential Claims; and

            10.3.2. claims which would be infringed only by:

                portions of an implementation that are not specified in
                the normative portions of the Specification, or

                enabling technologies that may be necessary to make or
                use any product or portion thereof that complies with
                the Specification and are not themselves expressly set
                forth in the Specification (e.g., semiconductor
                manufacturing technology, compiler technology,
                object-oriented technology, basic operating system
                technology, and the like); or

                the implementation of technology developed elsewhere and
                merely incorporated by reference in the body of the
                Specification.

            10.3.3. design patents and design registrations.

        For purposes of this definition, the normative portions of the
        Specification shall be deemed to include only architectural and
        interoperability requirements. Optional features in the RFC 2119
        sense are considered normative unless they are specifically
        identified as informative. Implementation examples or any other
        material that merely illustrate the requirements of the
        Specification are informative, rather than normative.

        10.4. I, Me, or My. “I,” “me,” or “my” refers to the signatory.

        10.5 Project. “Project” means the W3C Community Group or
        Business Group for which I executed this Agreement.

        10.6. Specification. “Specification” means the Specification
        identified by the Project as the target of this agreement in a
        call for Final Specification Commitments. W3C shall provide the
        authoritative mechanisms for the identification of this
        Specification.

        10.7. W3C Community RF Licensing Requirements. “W3C Community RF
        Licensing Requirements” license shall mean a non-assignable,
        non-sublicensable license to make, have made, use, sell, have
        sold, offer to sell, import, and distribute and dispose of
        implementations of the Specification that:

            10.7.1. shall be available to all, worldwide, whether or not
            they are W3C Members;

            10.7.2. shall extend to all Essential Claims owned or
            controlled by me;

            10.7.3. may be limited to implementations of the
            Specification, and to what is required by the Specification;

            10.7.4. may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal RF
            license (as defined in this policy) to all Essential Claims
            owned or controlled by the licensee. A reciprocal license
            may be required to be available to all, and a reciprocal
            license may itself be conditioned on a further reciprocal
            license from all.

            10.7.5. may not be conditioned on payment of royalties, fees
            or other consideration;

            10.7.6. may be suspended with respect to any licensee when
            licensor issued by licensee for infringement of claims
            essential to implement the Specification or any W3C
            Recommendation;

            10.7.7. may not impose any further conditions or
            restrictions on the use of any technology, intellectual
            property rights, or other restrictions on behavior of the
            licensee, but may include reasonable, customary terms
            relating to operation or maintenance of the license
            relationship such as the following: choice of law and
            dispute resolution;

            10.7.8. shall not be considered accepted by an implementer
            who manifests an intent not to accept the terms of the W3C
            Community RF Licensing Requirements license as offered by
            the licensor.

            10.7.9. The RF license conforming to the requirements in
            this policy shall be made available by the licensor as long
            as the Specification is in effect. The term of such license
            shall be for the life of the patents in question.

        I am encouraged to provide a contact from which licensing
        information can be obtained and other relevant licensing
        information. Any such information will be made publicly
        available.

        10.8. You or Your. “You,” “you,” or “your” means any person or
        entity who exercises copyright or patent rights granted under
        this Agreement, and any person that person or entity controls.
=====

> Is this acceptable for Debian?

Debian doesn't consist of licenses; it consists of software works under
specific grants of license. So it matters what specific grant the Debian
Project is being asked to accept.

Are you proposing a Debian package of the MusicXML standard? Or some
other work? Where is the text granting specific license in that work?

-- 
 \         “Our urge to trust our senses overpowers what our measuring |
  `\         devices tell us about the actual nature of reality.” —Ann |
_o__)                                           Druyan, _Cosmos_, 2014 |
Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org>


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