A proposal for MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 being compatible with CC BY-SA 4.0
卢遥
Dear Creative Commons community,
I am Dr. Lu Yao from China and currently work on open source software and crowdsourced learning. Now I would like to submit “Mulan Open Works License Attribution-ShareAlike, Version 1” (MulanOWL BY-SA v1, http://openworks.mulanos.cn/#/licenses/MulanOWL_BY-SA-v1) and “Mulan Open Works License Attribution-PatentLicensed-ShareAlike, Version 1” (MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1, http://openworks.mulanos.cn/#/licenses/MulanOWL_BY-PL-SA-v1) for being compatible with Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
I have hosted the drafting process of Mulan Open Works Licenses, Version 1 (Mulan OWLs v1), which were formally published in December, 2022. Mulan Open Works Licenses are a new member of Mulan license family, in which Mulan PSL v2 (for software) has been approved by OSI in 2020. Generally, Mulan OWLs v1 are a suite of four licenses:
- Mulan Open Works License Attribution, Version 1 (MulanOWL BY v1): http://openworks.mulanos.cn/#/licenses/MulanOWL_BY-v1
- Mulan Open Works License Attribution-ShareAlike, Version 1 (MulanOWL BY-SA v1): http://openworks.mulanos.cn/#/licenses/MulanOWL_BY-SA-v1
- Mulan Open Works License Attribution-PatentLicensed, Version 1 (MulanOWL BY-PL v1): http://openworks.mulanos.cn/#/licenses/MulanOWL_BY-PL-v1
- Mulan Open Works License Attribution-PatentLicensed-ShareAlike, Version 1 (MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1): http://openworks.mulanos.cn/#/licenses/MulanOWL_BY-PL-SA-v1
Overall, the main charateristics of Mulan OWLs v1 are summarized below:
- The licenses are applicable for open works (as explained in (4) below);
- The licenses include two licenses that grant patent license (MulanOWL BY-PL v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1), which can be used in scenes that licensors want to grant license of patent covered by the copyrighted portion of the open works, e.g., Tesla’s “Patent Pledge” (https://www.tesla.cn/legal/additional-resources), Medtronic opening patent rights of PB560 ventilator (https://www.medtronic.com/us-en/e/open-files.html, https://www.medtronic.com/content/dam/medtronic-com/global/Corporate/covid19/documents/permissive-license-open-ventilator.pdf), and open design materials that may refer to granting design patent license (https://js.design/?source=pz&plan=dbt);
- The licenses provide conventions of attribution for multiversion works, i.e., providing title and version of the works, which facilitates the use and retrieval of works that are frequently modified, such as the crowdsourced works;
- As with Mulan PSL v2, Mulan OWLs are written in both Chinese and English, and they have the same legal effect. In case of divergence between the Chinese and English versions, the Chinese version shall prevail.
Firstly, the minimum compatibility criteria are analyzed below:
(1) As indicated by the ‘SA’ in the license names, both MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 contain a ShareAlike mechanism. The related terms can be found at Sec 3(3) in MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and Sec 4(3) in MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1.
(2) As indicated by the ‘BY’ in the license names, both MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 contain a attribution mechanism. The related terms can be found at Sec 3 in MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and Sec 4 in MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1.
(3) Both MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 license copyright. The related terms can be found at Sec 1 in the two licenses. Additionally, MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 grant patent rights (Sec 2).
(4) Both MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 do not violate the definition of Free Cultural Works. The MulanOWLs v1 are mainly used for “open works”. We define “open works” as works under copyright that have the following characteristics [1]:
- Open for use: allowing individuals or organizations besides the author of the work to freely use the work or its fragments in a reasonable manner.
- Free distribution: allowing individuals or organizations besides the author of the work to freely distribute the work or its fragments in a reasonable manner.
- Allowing modification: allowing individuals or organizations besides the author of the work to modify and redistribute the work or its fragments in a reasonable manner.
These characteristics are in accord with the definition and values of Free Cultural Works: “works or expressions which can be freely studied, applied, copied and/or modified, by anyone, for any purpose”. A small difference is that Open Works emphasize the compliance of the use behaviors on the work, which mainly refers to compliance with the the terms of the corresponding license. Accordingly, all the four licenses in Mulan OWLs v1 can be used for Free Cultural Works.
Furthermore, we analyze the “Additional considerations” below:
In terms of two-way compatibility, both MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 have declared CC BY-SA 4.0 as a compatible license (http://license.coscl.org.cn/faq, please see the following figure).
In terms of effective technological measures, as with CC BY-SA 4.0, both MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 explicitly prohibits effective technological measures to the licensed content and allow licensees to remove the applied effective technical measures.
The attribution requirements of MulanOWL BY-SA v1 and MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 are the same but are slightly different from CC BY-SA 4.0, which we would explain in detail in the following table.
Now I make a detailed comparison among the three licenses below:
CC BY-SA 4.0 | MulanOWL BY-SA v1 | MulanOWL BY-PL-SA v1 | |
License scope | Copyright, neighboring rights and sui generis database rights (SGDRs) (Sec 1d) | Copyright only, but related rights may not challenge rights granted by license (Sec 1) | Copyright and Patent rights, but related rights may not challenge rights granted by license (Sec 1 and Sec 2) |
Attribution trigger | If there is applicable copyright in work, then when work or adaptation of work is shared. (Sec 3a)
| When work (modified or not) is distributed (Sec 3) | When work (modified or not) is distributed (Sec 4) |
Attribution removal clause | Yes (Sec 3a3) | Yes (Sec 3(2)) | Yes (Sec 4(2)) |
Attribution elements | 1. creator and attribution parties 2. copyright notice 3. license notice 4. disclaimer notice 5. URI or link to the licensed material 6. indicate and link to license (Sec 3a1) | 1. creator and attribution parties 2. copyright notice 3. license notice 4. disclaimer notice 5. URI or link to the licensed material 6. indicate and link to license 7. modification statements 8. patent statements 9. trademark statements 10. title and version of the work (optional) (Sec 3) | 1. creator and attribution parties 2. copyright notice 3. license notice 4. disclaimer notice 5. URI or link to the licensed material 6. indicate and link to license 7. modification statements 8. patent statements 9. trademark statements 10. title and version of the work (optional) (Sec 4) |
Special marking requirement if work is modified | Yes (indicate if you modified and retain indication of previous modifications) (Sec 3a1B) | Yes (indicate if you modified and retain indication of previous modifications) (Sec 3(3) and Sec 3(4)) | Yes (indicate if you modified and retain indication of previous modifications) (Sec 4(3) and Sec 4(4)) |
ShareAlike trigger | When adaptation is shared (Sec 3b) | When adaptation is shared (Sec 3(3)) | When adaptation is shared (Sec 4(3)) |
ShareAlike scope | Must ShareAlike contributions to adaptations (Sec 3b);
| Must ShareAlike contributions to adaptations (Sec 3(3)); | Must ShareAlike contributions to adaptations (Sec 4(3)); |
Source requirement | None | None | None |
Effective technological measures | May not be applied by licensees if they restrict access to the work or adaptations (Sec 2a5C)
| May not be applied by licensees if they restrict access to the work or adaptations (Sec 3(4))
| May not be applied by licensees if they restrict access to the work or adaptations (Sec 4(4))
|
Moral rights | Waived only to the extent necessary to allow the license to function. (Sec 2b1) | Not expressly mentioned | Not expressly mentioned |
Termination | Automatic upon breach (Sec 6a) | Terminate upon the receipt of the termination notice from the licensors (Sec 4.1) | Terminate upon the receipt of termination notice from the licensors (Sec 5.1) |
Reinstatement after termination | Requires express permission unless cured within 30 days of discovery of violation (Sec 6b) | The license will not be terminated (or will be reinstated) under three circumstances below: (1) the licensee has cured all the breaches prior to receipt of the notice of termination; (2) it’s licensee’s first time to receive a notice of termination and it has cured all the breaches within 30 days of receipt of the notice; (3) the licensor has expressly reinstated the license granted to the licensee. | The license will not be terminated (or will be reinstated) under three circumstances below: (1) the licensee has cured all the breaches prior to receipt of the notice of termination; (2) it’s licensee’s first time to receive a notice of termination and it has cured all the breaches within 30 days of receipt of the notice; (3) the licensor has expressly reinstated the license granted to the licensee. |
Reps & warranties | Expressly disclaimed (Sec 5) | Expressly disclaimed (Sec 5) | Expressly disclaimed (Sec 6) |
Choice of law | None | None | None |
Option to comply with other license versions | Yes, but limited. Licensees may choose to comply with a later version of BY-SA if such version is applied to an adaptation of the work. (Secs 2a5B, 3b1) | Yes, but limited. Licensees may choose to comply with a later version of MulanOWL BY-SA if such version is applied to an adaptation of the work. (Sec 3(3)) | Yes, but limited. Licensees may choose to comply with a later version of MulanOWL BY-PL-SA if such version is applied to an adaptation of the work. (Sec 4(3)) |
I'm happy to deliver more information and look forward to your comments.
Best regards from China,
Yao Lu,
National University of Defense Technology
Kat Walsh
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Kat Walsh
We have done a preliminary analysis of the Mulan OWL BY-SA v1 as a compatible license for CC BY-SA 4.0.
There are a few differences in detail between these two licenses. The primary differences we see are that the scope of this license only explicitly mentions “copyright”, not related rights (particularly, it is silent on database rights), and the attribution requirements for works under this license also require any included patent and trademark statement.
Our analysis depends on whether any of these differences rise to the level of creating a different purpose or effect for these provisions, particularly as compared to other licenses that CC has also deemed to be Compatible Licenses for the purpose of allowing adaptations of ShareAlike works. Our primary concern to this effect is over the scope of the rights: that related rights are not covered in MulanOWL BY-SA v1, and are seeking community feedback on whether this should block addition to the list. Otherwise, our preliminary opinion is that this should be added to the list of compatible licenses.
The public discussion period is now open for community analysis and consideration. In particular, we are interested in any reasons you may identify why this license should not be added to the list of compatible licenses. The license steward has also indicated that versioning may be possible, so revisions that would change your opinion would also be useful feedback.
As a reminder, applying a compatible license to an adaptation does not relicense the original work–it requires that reusers comply with both the original CC license and the Adapter’s License. A compatible license should be one that makes this process simple to comply with because the requirements of both licenses are essentially the same.
The full requirements and additional considerations are given here:
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility_process_and_criteria
The wiki page with comments and analysis on this license is here:
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility_analysis:_Mulan
Primarily, a compatible license should be one that the community licensing their works under a ShareAlike license believes is sufficiently “Alike” that their intentions for the work will continue to be met.
This consultation will close on December 31, 2023 (extending the usual 30 day period a bit to allow for more time near end-of-year holidays); please submit any comments before that time.
Thank you for your attention and consideration!