help.html

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block title %}LicenseDB: Help{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
  <div class="container" style="max-width: 800px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
    <ul class="menu" style="margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
      <li class="divider" data-content="TABLE OF CONTENTS"></li>
      <li class="menu-item">
        <a href="#overview">Overview</a>
        <a href="#browse">Web access</a>
        <a href="#api">JSON API usage</a>
        <a href="#git">Git repositories</a>
        <a href="#support">Support</a>
        <a href="#license">License</a>
        <a href="#field-definitions">License Field Definitions</a>
        <a href="#license-categories">License Categories Definition</a>
      </li>
    </ul>

    <section id="overview">
        <h4 id="overview">
          LicenseDB overview <a class="anchor" href="#overview" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>
        <p>LicenseDB is likely the largest collection of software licenses available on
        earth and may be beyond.
        </p>

        <p>LicenseDB is a free and open database of mostly all the software licenses, in
        particular all the open source software licenses, with over 2000 curated licenses
        texts and their metadata.
        </p>

        <p>LicenseDB is built from the ScanCode Toolkit license dataset. ScanCode Toolkit
        is a leading open source code scanner and license detection engine.</p>

        <p>LicenseDB is an essential reference license resource for license compliance and
        SBOMs. LicenseDB includes all the SPDX and OSI licenses together with an extended
        curated collection of other licenses and license metadata. These licenses are
        carefully reviewed and curated and continusouly updated by an open community of
        contributors.</p>

        <p>LicenseDB is available as a web site, an JSON or YAML API and a git repository
        making it easy to reuse and integrate in tools that need a database of reference
        software licenses.</p>
    </section>

    <hr>
    <section id="browse">
        <h4 id="browse">
          LicenseDB web <a class="anchor" href="#browse" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>

        <p>The web site is published at: <a class="reference external" 
        href="https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/">https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/</a>.
        You can search the licenses by name, key and other attributes.</p>
    </section>


    <hr>
    <section id="api">
        <h4 id="api">
          LicenseDB API <a class="anchor" href="#api" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>

        <p>The API index is available at these endpoints:</p>
        <ul class="simple">
            <li>as JSON:
                <a class="reference external" 
                    href="https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/index.json">
                    https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/index.json
                </a>
            </li>
            <li>as YAML:
                <a class="reference external" 
                    href="https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/index.yml">
                    https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/index.yml
                </a>
            </li>
        </ul>
        <p>The index contains a list of the license keys with key metadata and links to the
        license details and texts using this license key as an identifier:</p>
        <ul class="simple">
        <li>
            as JSON: https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/&lt;license key&gt;.json
            for instance: <a class="reference external" 
            href="https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/gpl-2.0.json">https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/gpl-2.0.json</a><
        /li>
        <li>
        as YAML: https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/&lt;license key&gt;.yml
            for instance: <a class="reference external" href="https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/gpl-2.0.yml">
            https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/gpl-2.0.yml</a>
        </li>
        <li>
            as text for the full license text: https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/&lt;license key&gt;.LICENSE
            for instance: <a class="reference external" href="https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/gpl-2.0.LICENSE">
            https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/gpl-2.0.LICENSE</a>
        </li>
        </ul>
    </section>

    <hr>
    <section id="git">
        <h4 id="git">
          LicenseDB Git repositories <a class="anchor" href="#git" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>
        <p>This git repository contains the full history of the generated HTML and JSON API documents <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb</a></p>
        <p>This  git repository contains the original and editable source files: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit</a></p>
        <ul class="simple">
            <li>for the text of a license and for the metadata of a license as YAML frontmatter, for instance at <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit/tree/develop/src/licensedcode/data/licenses/gpl-2.0.LICENSE">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit/tree/develop/src/licensedcode/data/licenses/gpl-2.0.LICENSE</a></li>
        </ul>
    </section>

    <hr>
    <section id="support">
        <h4 id="support">
          Support <a class="anchor" href="#support" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>
        <ul class="simple">
            <li>Chat with us at: <a class="reference external" href="https://gitter.im/aboutcode-org/discuss">https://gitter.im/aboutcode-org/discuss</a></li>
            <li>Report issues or ask questions at: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit/issues">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit/issues</a> and
            <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb/issues">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb/issues</a></li>
            <li>Visit <a class="reference external" href="https://www.aboutcode.org/">https://www.aboutcode.org/</a> for more open source and open data projects.</li>
        </ul>
    </section>

    <hr>
    <section id="license">
        <h4 id="license">
          LicenseDB's own license <a class="anchor" href="#license" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>
        <p>SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0 AND Apache-2.0</p>
        <p><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb</a>
        Copyright (c) nexB Inc. and others.
        ScanCode is a trademark of nexB Inc.</p>
        <p>ScanCode LicenseDB data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
        License 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).
        Some licenses, such as the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, are subject to other licenses.
        See the corresponding license text for the specific license conditions.</p>
        <p>ScanCode LicenseDB software is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0.
        You may not use this software except in compliance with the License.
        You may obtain a copy of the License at: <a class="reference external" href="http://apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">http://apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0</a>
        Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed
        under the License is distributed on an &quot;AS IS&quot; BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR
        CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
        specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.</p>
        <p>ScanCode LicenseDB is generated with ScanCode Toolkit. The database and its contents
        are provided on an &quot;AS IS&quot; BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND,
        either express or implied.
        No content from ScanCode LicenseDB should be considered or used as legal advice.
        Consult an attorney for any legal advice.</p>
        <p>Visit <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-licensedb</a> for support.</p>
        <p>ScanCode Toolkit is a free Software Composition Analysis tool from nexB Inc. and
        others.
        Visit <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit">https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit</a> for support and download.</p>
    </section>


    <hr>
    <section id="field-definitions">
        <h4 id="field-definitions">
          Field Definitions <a class="anchor" href="#field-definitions" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>
        <dl>
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">key</dt>
          <dd>
            The unique identifier for the license in the ScanCode LicenseDB as assigned by scancode-toolkit.
            Note that this identifier is permanent and never changes and never goes away once published: no license key is ever deleted.
            Instead a license can be marked as deprecated.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">short_name</dt>
          <dd>A short descriptive name (title) for the license in the ScanCode LicenseDB as assigned by scancode-toolkit.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">name</dt>
          <dd>A long name for the license in the ScanCode LicenseDB as assigned by scancode-toolkit.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">is_deprecated</dt>
          <dd>
            When this is “yes”, the license is no longer used. For deprecated licenses, the notes may contain commentaries
            and the license key that this license may be replaced by when relevant.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">spdx_license_key</dt>
          <dd>
            The SPDX Short Identifier for the license if it exists in the SPDX license list at
            <a href="https://spdx.org/licenses/" target="_blank">https://spdx.org/licenses/</a>.
            Otherwise this is an SPDX license reference in the form of <code>LicenseRef-scancode-&lt;license key&gt;</code>.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">other_spdx_license_keys</dt>
          <dd>Alternative (or older, deprecated or obsolete) SPDX Short Identifiers or LicenseRef for the license.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">text_urls</dt>
          <dd>URLs to the standard text of the license.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">notes</dt>
          <dd>Notes and comments about the license.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">category</dt>
          <dd>
            A license category code, assigned by scancode-toolkit, that provides a major grouping for licenses,
            generally describing the relationship between the licensor and the licensee. These license categories are not
            legally precise, and are only intended to support Software Composition Analysis and usage policy implementations.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">owner</dt>
          <dd>
            An owner is an entity that is the original author or custodian of a software license, and which may be responsible
            for the text of the license. This is mandatory and should be set to "Unspecified" if it cannot be determined.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">homepage_url</dt>
          <dd>The homepage URL where the license is described.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">other_urls</dt>
          <dd>
            Other URLs that identify or are related to this license, such as URLs to this license in different open-source projects.
            Obsolete links may be kept here, as they may be useful for historical analysis purposes.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">osi_license_key</dt>
          <dd>The identifier assigned by the OSI to a license for OSI-approved licenses.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">osi_url</dt>
          <dd>A URL on the OSI website <a href="http://opensource.org" target="_blank">http://opensource.org</a> for OSI-approved licenses.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">faq_url</dt>
          <dd>A URL that provides answers to frequently asked questions about the license.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">is_exception</dt>
          <dd>
            When this is "yes", indicates that this license is actually an exception applied to another license in order to
            modify specific conditions of that other license.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">standard_notice</dt>
          <dd>The standard text to provide in source or documentation that identifies the license or exception that applies to the software.</dd>
        </dl>
    
        <h5>These fields are used only to support certain technical aspects of code scanning:</h5>
        <dl>
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">ignorable_urls</dt>
          <dd>URLs found in the license text but that can be ignored when scanning for URLs.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">ignorable_emails</dt>
          <dd>Email addresses found in the license text but that can be ignored when scanning for emails.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">ignorable_copyrights</dt>
          <dd>Copyright statements found in the license text but that can be ignored when scanning for copyright.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">ignorable_holders</dt>
          <dd>Copyright holders found in the license text but that can be ignored when scanning for copyright holders.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">ignorable_authors</dt>
          <dd>Author names found in the license text but that can be ignored when scanning for authors.</dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">minimum_coverage</dt>
          <dd>Minimum percentage of the license text words that need to be matched to consider a license detection as a valid match.</dd>
        </dl>
    </section>

    <hr>
    <section id="license-categories">
        <h4 id="license-categories">
          License Categories <a class="anchor" href="#license-categories" aria-hidden="true">#</a>
        </h4>
        <dl>
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">CLA</dt>
          <dd>
            A Contributor License Agreement (CLA) describes and defines the contribution acceptance rules for the ongoing
            development and enhancement of a software project. The CLA may specify how the resulting software contribution
            itself will be licensed.
          </dd>
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Commercial</dt>
          <dd>
            Third-party proprietary software offered under a direct commercial license between supplier and customer.
            Further fact-finding by Product Teams will be necessary to determine the code's license status and function,
            if any.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Copyleft</dt>
          <dd>
            Open source software with a "copyleft" license that offers irrevocable permission to the public to copy and
            redistribute the work in the same or modified form, but with the conditions that all such redistributions
            make the work available in a form that facilitates further modification and use the same license terms.
            A copyleft license can require code interacting with copyleft-licensed code to be licensed the same way.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Copyleft Limited</dt>
          <dd>
            A license that requires you to redistribute source code, including your changes, and also to provide
            attribution for the software authors. Your obligation to redistribute source code, including proprietary
            code linked with code under this license, is limited according to license-specific rules.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Free Restricted</dt>
          <dd>
            A Permissive-style license, that contains restrictions regarding the usage of the software
            (for example, where the software is not intended for use in nuclear power plants) or the redistribution
            of the software (for example, where commercial redistribution of the software is not allowed without
            express permission). The Free Software Foundation (FSF) says that a license with this kind of restriction
            is not really open source, although the OSI point of view is not that strict.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Patent License</dt>
          <dd>
            A license that applies to patents rather than specific software. May be used in conjunction with other
            software license(s) that apply to a software component. 
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Permissive</dt>
          <dd>
            Open Source software that is made available under "non-copyleft" licenses. These generally require
            attribution of the included open source and may include other obligations.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Proprietary Free</dt>
          <dd>
            Proprietary Free software that may not require a commercial license but may have specific terms and
            conditions which Product Teams are obligated to follow. Some of these terms and conditions are provided
            with or in the code or in clickable downloaded licenses. Examples are the Sun Binary Code License Agreement
            or a freely offered BSP. 
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Public Domain</dt>
          <dd>
            Open source software that is made available without explicit obligations, but which has a license notice
            that must be kept with the code per organization policy. The match may be to software, code examples
            on a website, published public domain specifications or another type of publication.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Source-available</dt>
          <dd>
            Source-available software is software released through a source code distribution model that includes
            arrangements where the source can be viewed, and in some cases modified, but without necessarily meeting
            the criteria to be called open-source.
          </dd>
    
          <dt class="chip bg-secondary">Unstated License</dt>
          <dd>
            Third-party software that has a copyright notice, but no stated license. Common examples include code snippets
            from publications and websites (such as those from O'Reilly Media). The absence of a license poses a risk
            that the copyright owner may assert license obligations at some future time. Product Teams may need to
            contact the copyright owner to determine the license obligations, if any.
          </dd>
        </dl>
    </section>
  </div>
{% endblock %}