notes: decisions/0004-2026-10-21-licenses-and-no-lock-in

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path title type status classification words body
decisions/0004-2026-10-21-licenses-and-no-lock-in ADR 0004: Apache 2.0 for the code, CC BY 4.0 for the content, and no lock-in adr amended 2026-11-03: decision 3 is replaced by ADR 0005 (a source's text is shown where its license allows it, with the credit it asks for; otherwise linked and summarized); was: consent recorded 2026-10-29: Henk van Cann's answer names Apache 2 for KERISSE's code and CC for its content and consents to the fetch of the dataset for open-source use, which this record satisfies (the content license's version still to be named; see kerisse-alignment-2026-10.md); was: proposed 2026-10-21 on Mark's word after Henk van Cann's reply; adopted when the pull request that carries it is merged; the content license is re-read against ToIP's own name for it once Henk has checked partner 1142 # ADR 0004: Apache 2.0 for the code, CC BY 4.0 for the content, and no lock-in > **ADR 0004.** *Status:* proposed 2026-10-21. *Decision:* everything KSKB (the KERISuite Knowledge Base) publishes is open: its code under the Apache License 2.0, its own content under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0), the content license Trust over IP (ToIP) uses; the sources it indexes keep their own licenses and are never copied; and the whole of it is plain files in open formats on open-source tools, so that nothing in KSKB can lock the KERI community, or Mark, into a vendor, a host or a service. **Context.** On 21 October 2026 Henk van Cann answered the proposal sent to him and Kor Dwarshuis that evening ([[300-Research/310-KERISuite/docs/curator/kerisse-note-draft-2026-10|kerisse-note-draft-2026-10.md]]): the KERI Foundation and WebOfTrust use the fully open-source Apache 2.0 license and a ToIP content license, whose details he was still to check, and as long as nothing locks them into other things or into a vendor they would most likely be good to go. He will discuss it with Kor and Samuel Smith and propose a half-hour call. Mark's word the same evening: factor the two licenses into KSKB and the mockup website. What the community's own repositories say, read on 21 October 2026: - **Apache 2.0** on keripy (`WebOfTrust/keripy`), KERISSE (`WebOfTrust/kerisse`), WOT-terms (`WebOfTrust/WOT-terms`, whose LICENSE.md opens "All software and documentation in this repository are Copyright 2021 KERI Contributors" and licenses them under Apache 2.0) and KERIDoc (`WebOfTrust/keridoc`). Official, from each repository's license file or sidebar. - **The Open Web Foundation Final Specification Agreement 1.0 (OWFa 1.0)** on the KERI specification (`trustoverip/kswg-keri-specification`, LICENSE.md: "All software and documentation in this repository are Copyright 2023 KERI Contributors and all contributions to this repository are Licensed under the OWFa 1.0"). Official. That is ToIP's patent and copyright mode for a specification, not a content license. - **CC BY 4.0** as the copyright mode ToIP's working groups and task forces list for their deliverables other than code, with Apache 2.0 for code. Informative: read from ToIP wiki charter pages found by search; the Foundation's own IPR policy page did not load that day, and Henk said he had to check the details. Until he names it, "a ToIP content license" is taken to mean CC BY 4.0, and this record is corrected if it is another. KSKB's contributor page already named the pair as "the defaults under consideration" for the publication decision ([[300-Research/310-KERISuite/docs/contributor/contributing|contributing.md]]). Henk's reply makes the publication terms a condition of the collaboration rather than a later decision, so they are settled now. **Decision.** 1. **Code: Apache License 2.0.** KSKB's scripts (the register check, the index and database builders, the link checker), the reader that renders the shared copy, the generator of the kskb.dev mockup, and any site build. The same license as keripy, KERISSE, WOT-terms and KERIDoc, so KSKB's code can be lifted into a community repository without a relicensing step. 2. **Content: CC BY 4.0.** What KSKB itself writes: the register's own fields (abstracts, levels, evidence labels, the notes on cards), the vocabularies, the summaries and reference notes, the reading paths, the generated indexes and pages, the documentation sets. Attribution is "KERISuite Knowledge Base (KSKB), Mark Scott, curator" with a link; no share-alike, no non-commercial clause, so the Foundation's education work can take any of it without conditions beyond the credit. 3. **Sources keep their own licenses.** *Replaced on 3 November 2026 by [[300-Research/310-KERISuite/decisions/0005-2026-11-03-what-kskb-shows-of-a-source|ADR 0005]]: what KSKB shows of a source follows that license, read source by source; the text where it allows it, otherwise an abstract and a link.* As first written: KSKB links and summarizes; it republishes no one's text. A card's title, its maintainer, its date and its link are facts, not copies. A quotation is exact and marked, under fair use, or paraphrased. The KERISSE dataset, if fetched under ADR 0002, stays on Mark's machine; what is shared is metadata and KSKB's own abstracts, credited "found through KERISSE". The KERIConf 2026 recordings stay unlisted and uncopied. Nothing in the content license reaches a source. 4. **Contributions on the same terms.** A contribution is licensed by its author under the same license as the set it lands in (Apache 2.0 for code, CC BY 4.0 for text), as the contributor page already says; the "to be set" clause there is now set. 5. **No lock-in, by construction.** Files are the master: the register in YAML (a plain-text data format), the notes in Markdown, the vocabularies in YAML, the database in SQLite (a single-file database engine), all open formats readable by any tool and kept in git. The tools are open source (Python, SQLite, Datasette under Apache 2.0, Quartz and Pagefind under MIT). A site is a folder of static files that any host serves; Cloudflare Pages is the host of choice and is replaceable by GitHub Pages or any other in an afternoon. No account is needed to read the public set. The Claude artifact pages (Mini KSKB, the mockup) are previews built from the same files, never the system. The KERISuite exports (the core group's `kerisuite-kb`, the private `ks-corpus`) are rebuilt from the vault on every sync. If the KERI Foundation or WebOfTrust ever wants KSKB under its own organization, the move is a repository transfer; ADR 0001 already foresees it. 6. **Where it is stated.** The manifest ([[300-Research/310-KERISuite/kms.toml|kms.toml]], a `[license]` table), the README, the user guide, the core-group front page, the admin guide, the contributor page, and a License page in the kskb.dev mockup with the pair in its footer. A `LICENSE` file goes into each export when the first is published outside the vault; inside the vault the manifest is the statement. **Consequences.** - Anything marked public or partner in this folder is, from the merge of this record, published under CC BY 4.0 when it travels; the curator marks with that in mind. Internal and restricted material is unaffected, since it does not travel. - Question 2 of the proposal (under what terms is the dataset published) is half answered: the KERISSE repository is Apache 2.0; whether the dataset files at keri.foundation are under the same terms is for the call. - The partner readers and the site are built on nothing that charges for the data or holds it: a rule for every tool choice from here, and a check the admin guide makes before a service is adopted. - The mockup and Mini KSKB say the licenses on their About pages; the mockup carries a License page. **Alternatives.** CC BY-SA 4.0 (share-alike), which would keep derivatives open but would stop the Foundation from folding abstracts into material under another license. CC0 or public domain, which drops the credit KSKB's sources are owed. Keeping the terms open until the publication decision, which Henk's condition makes the wrong order: the terms are what makes the collaboration possible.

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