diff --git a/governing-documents/allowed-third-party-license-policy.md b/governing-documents/allowed-third-party-license-policy.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..06046adb --- /dev/null +++ b/governing-documents/allowed-third-party-license-policy.md @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +--- +layout: default +title: Hyperledger Foundation Allowed Third Party Licenses +parent: Governing Documents +grand_parent: Hyperledger TOC +nav_order: 3 +--- +[//]: # (SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0) + +# Hyperledger Foundation Allowed Third Party Licenses + +Hyperledger Foundation's IP policy is set forth in the [Hyperledger Foundation charter], section 12. + +Hyperledger Foundation project dependencies that are licensed under Apache-2.0 do not require +further license review or approval, since they are under the same license as +the Hyperledger Foundation itself. + +The IP policy in the [Hyperledger Foundation charter] allows the Hyperledger Foundation Governing +Board to review and approve other non-Apache-2.0 licenses on an exception basis. + +To streamline this process, licenses for some components are allowed as per +the Hyperledger Foundation Allowlist License Policy (adopted by the Hyperledger Foundation +Governing Board on 2019-04-02). + +Components that are not under Apache-2.0, and that do not satisfy the Allowlist License Policy, remain subject to review and exception approval by the Governing Board. + +## Hyperledger Foundation Allowlist License Policy + +A third-party component under a non-Apache 2.0 license will be deemed automatically approved by the Governing Board for use in a Hyperledger Foundation project as an exception to the Hyperledger Foundation Intellectual Property Policy, if **all** of the following apply: + +1. it is fully licensable under the approved licenses set forth in [Approved Licenses] (including combinations with Apache-2.0); AND + +2. it is either not stored in the Hyperledger repo, or else stored unmodified in a designated third-party folder in source code form; AND + +3. it has indications of substantial use outside Hyperledger because either: + + * the component is part of the applicable programming language's standard library; or + * the component was created on GitHub at least 12 months ago and has at least 10 stars or 10 forks. + +### Approved Licenses for Allowlist + +To be approved as "allowlisted," a third-party component must be fully +licenseable under one or more of the following licenses, and must meet the +other allowlist criteria set forth in the [Allowlist License Policy] above. + +License IDs refer to the SPDX License List at https://spdx.org/licenses, except +where a URL is specified below for licenses that are not on the SPDX License +List. + +Approved Licenses: + + * BSD-2-Clause + * BSD-2-Clause-FreeBSD + * BSD-3-Clause + * MIT + * ISC + * Python-2.0 + * BSL-1.0 (Boost) + * bzip2-1.0.6 + * OLDAP-2.7, -2.8 (Open LDAP) + * PostgreSQL + * TCL (TCL/TK) + * W3C + * X11 + * Zlib + * Google patent license for Golang (https://golang.org/PATENTS) + * References to being in the "public domain" (excluding CC0-1.0) + +For fonts: OFL-1.0, OFL-1.1 + +For documentation: CC-BY-1.0, CC-BY-2.0, CC-BY-2.5, CC-BY-3.0 + +[Allowlist License Policy]: #Hyperledger-Foundation-Allowlist-License-Policy +[Approved Licenses]: #approved-licenses-for-allowlist +[Hyperledger Foundation Charter]: https://github.com/hyperledger/toc/blob/gh-pages/governing-documents/charter.md