Special W3C Test license for publishing Test Materials

Hi, all,

After quite a bit of discussion on this topic here in MS, the conclusion
was that there is a need for special W3C Test license for the Test
materials published by the W3C. (Issue 49) 

 

Here are the arguments in favor of having special test license (some of
them were discussed before):

 

-        Test Materials are specific documents or software provided for
a specific, defined and limited purpose. The license to use and copy
them can therefore be specific, defined and limited.  

 

-        The W3C SOFTWARE and DOCUMENT licenses are more general in
nature and do not provide for the precise license grant.  The W3C
SOFTWARE and DOCUMENT were not intended to cover the conveyance of
rights specific to the Test Materials. 
Example: banning modification of the materials in the Document license
is not applicable for the API-oriented test materials, but could be
still useful if it just limits modification to certain extent.

 

-        Any ambiguity that may exist with respect to someone's right to
use the test materials under the "one size fits all" W3C SOFTWARE and
DOCUMENT licenses could be expressly clarified by the "Notice and
License for Test Materials".   

 

I'll bring the draft of the possible license text to the f2f, Friday, so
that we can discuss it. 

 

Thanks