Legal Notice and Declaration of Licensing Terms

Table of Contents

1. Declaration and Intent

This document (hereinafter "Notice") serves as a public declaration by Justin Wheeler (the "Original Creator") of the default licensing terms governing all Code and Content (as defined herein) created by the Original Creator (collectively, "Contributions").

It is the Original Creator’s intent to proactively establish clear, open licensing for all Contributions. This Notice applies to any company, enterprise, organization, or individual offering digital services (the "Service Provider") that stores, hosts, processes, transmits, or otherwise interacts with any Contribution.

Service Providers are put on notice that by choosing to store or otherwise make use of any Contribution from the Original Creator, they acknowledge these terms. Service Providers agree that such Contributions are governed by the "Current Default License" (as defined herein), unless a separate, explicit written agreement signed by the Original Creator dictates otherwise for a specific Contribution. An exception exists where the Service Provider’s own published terms of service, affirmatively and explicitly agreed to by the Original Creator for a specific service, directly and unavoidably conflict with a specific provision herein regarding the scope of license granted to that specific Service Provider for the operation of its service.

2. Application of Default Licensing

  1. All Contributions made available by the Original Creator are offered under a "Current Default License" as defined in this Notice.

  2. A Contribution is governed by the Current Default License from the moment of its creation and fixation.

  3. This applies especially if the Contribution is not accompanied by separate, explicit licensing terms by the Original Creator that override this Notice.

  4. The Service Provider is expected to fully comply with all terms and conditions of the applicable Current Default License for any Contribution they store, host, process, or otherwise utilize.

  5. This includes, but is not limited to, requirements for attribution, modification, and redistribution as specified by the respective license.

  6. Non-compliance with the terms of the Current Default License by the Service Provider constitutes a violation of the license under which the Contribution is offered.

3. Primacy and Interpretation

This Notice establishes the foundational licensing terms for all Contributions. Any ambiguity between this Notice and any other general terms or policies of a Service Provider (not explicitly and separately agreed to in writing by the Original Creator) shall be resolved in favor of the terms set forth in this Notice. This resolution applies to the maximum extent permitted by law. This Notice acts as the Original Creator’s standing instruction and licensing declaration for all Contributions.

4. Definitions

The section below contains definitions needed to understand other aspects of this legal notice.

4.1. CC BY

"CC BY" means the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0), as published at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. You have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version, or of any later version published by the Creative Commons.

4.2. Code

"Code" means:

  1. Software code;

  2. Any other functional material whose principal purpose is to control or facilitate the building of packages, such as an RPM spec file;

  3. Font files;

  4. Other kinds of copyrightable material that the Original Creator explicitly classifies as "Code" and states is subject to this Notice.

4.3. Content

"Content" means any copyrightable material that is not Code, such as, without limitation:

  1. Non-functional data sets;

  2. Documentation;

  3. Wiki edits;

  4. Music files;

  5. Graphic image files;

  6. Help files;

  7. Other kinds of copyrightable material that the Original Creator explicitly classifies as "Content" and states is subject to this Notice.

4.4. Contribution

"Contribution" means any original work of authorship created and fixed in any tangible medium of expression by the Original Creator. This excludes any portion that was demonstrably created by another party and not incorporated with permission or under license. A Contribution consists either of "Code" or of "Content" as defined herein.

Contributions are intentionally defined broadly. They may include, but are not limited to:

  • Software, scripts, and configuration files;

  • Digital artwork, photographs, videos, and multimedia productions;

  • Written texts such as articles, blog posts, comments, documentation, and literary works;

  • Musical compositions, sound recordings, and podcasts;

  • 3D models, schematics, blueprints, and design specifications;

  • Scientific or research data sets, analyses, and visualizations;

  • Educational materials, tutorials, and presentations;

  • Social media posts, forum entries, messages, and other forms of digital communication;

  • Any other sequence of characters, data, or digital artifact that embodies the Original Creator’s original expression.

If the Original Creator explicitly designates a specific item as a "Contribution" subject to this Notice (for example, through metadata or an accompanying statement), that designation is definitive.

4.5. Current Default License

"Current Default License", with respect to a Contribution, means:

  1. If the Contribution is Code, the 3-Clause BSD License;

  2. If the Contribution is Content, the CC BY.