← Back to catalogue
Published

multi-licensing

vr.tr.multi-licensing · thing-q1367082

Enable an agent to recognise a multi-licensing arrangement, establish which licence routes cover a particular work and use, and identify the evidence needed before choosing or offering a route.

Thing Registry Activities and processes ACT.ACT

Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled

6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 31 questions

Meaning and instance tests Establish what multi-licensing means in the relevant setting and whether the arrangement meets that interpretation.

Definitions and disagreements

Record attributed definitions without treating industry terminology as uniform.

Attributed meaning

Identify the interpretation used by the licensor, recipient and relevant reference sources.

  1. What does each relevant party mean by multi-licensing, and does that meaning include separately sold exceptions? definition
  2. Which published statement or agreement supports each attributed interpretation? provenance

Qualifying arrangement

Test for multiple routes over shared material rather than inferring them from branding.

Shared work and alternatives

Establish the shared licensed subject and distinguish alternatives from aggregation or sequential changes.

  1. Which identifiable material is covered by at least two evidenced licence routes? boundary
  2. What establishes that this is multiple-route licensing rather than separate component licences or a change between releases? definition
Coverage and offer evidence Bind every route to identifiable content and the instrument that offers it.

Licensed subject

Resolve shared coverage and exclusions at the granularity used by the grants.

Route coverage map

Record the content covered by each alternative and any portions governed separately.

  1. Which versions, files, assets or other portions does each licence route cover? boundary
  2. Which third-party portions or edition-specific additions fall outside the shared coverage? boundary

Grant identification

Identify exact licence texts and evidence that they apply to the covered material.

Operative offer

Capture licence versions, exceptions and applicable notices or agreements without substituting a marketing summary.

  1. Which exact licence texts, versions, exceptions and agreements define each route? provenance
  2. Which dated notice or executed agreement connects each route to this particular material? provenance
  3. What evidence resolves conflicts between file headers, repository notices and commercial terms? action
Authority and contribution coverage Establish the basis on which the offering party can make each route available.

Granting authority

Trace the evidence supporting the offered grants.

Authority for each route

Identify ownership, permissions or other asserted grounds for each alternative and mark gaps.

  1. Who offers each route, and what evidence supports their authority over its covered material? provenance
  2. Which permissions are established, disputed or still unverified for the proposed alternative? boundary

Incoming contributions

Assess how contributions and incorporated material affect the continued availability of multiple routes.

Contributor permission fit

Determine whether incoming rights support the outgoing alternatives for the relevant release.

  1. Which contributor agreements or inbound licence grants support inclusion under each outgoing route? provenance
  2. Which contributions require additional permission, exclusion or a narrower route description? action
Route choice and obligations Connect a recipient's intended action to available alternatives and the terms requiring assessment.

Choice and eligibility

Establish how a recipient obtains or elects a route.

Route access conditions

Separate publicly available alternatives from routes requiring eligibility, payment or agreement.

  1. May this recipient choose freely among the routes, or what eligibility and agreement conditions apply? boundary
  2. What action and evidence, if any, establish that the recipient has obtained or selected a route? action

Use-specific comparison

Compare route conditions against a defined action rather than ranking licences in the abstract.

Permission and obligation fit

Record the differences relevant to the proposed use and the unresolved interpretations that prevent a supported decision.

  1. For the intended copying, modification, distribution or service operation, which permissions and conditions require checking under each route? action
  2. Which differences in disclosure, notices, patent permissions, fees or contractual commitments affect route suitability? boundary
  3. Which route is supported by the evidence for this action, and what unresolved issue prevents selection if none is established? action
Downstream options and change Track what happens to licence alternatives when material is modified, redistributed or offered under changed terms.

Redistribution and modification

Determine the evidenced routes for recipients of a particular redistributed or modified version.

Downstream route preservation

Trace original material, modifications and required notices to determine which alternatives are actually conveyed.

  1. Which licence routes may the distributor offer for the original material and for its modifications? boundary
  2. What notices, permissions and distribution choices establish which alternatives downstream recipients receive? action

Offer and grant history

Separate changes to future offers from the status of previously obtained grants.

Time-specific route status

Record route changes by release, recipient and date, leaving legal effects unresolved where evidence is insufficient.

  1. When and for which releases or recipient classes was each route introduced, changed or withdrawn from new availability? provenance
  2. What do the applicable terms establish about previously obtained permissions after an offer changes? boundary
  3. Which changes require reassessing an existing route selection before the next planned action? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.

Reported evidence

Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.

Check these first

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these check these first hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Kinds and varieties

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Identifiers and schemes

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Standards and regulation

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Real-world use

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Failure modes and hazards

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Regional variation

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  1. Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of multi-licensing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Classifiers Filled

Family
Thing Registry
Category
Activities and processes
Entry kind
thing
Plane
ACT
Domain
ACT.ACT
Other names and narrower kinds
open-core business model

What it is Filled

Multi-licensing is the practice of offering the same work under two or more alternative licenses from which a recipient may choose, with permissions and obligations determined by the chosen licence route.

In scope

  • Definitions of multi-licensing and the evidence used to classify an arrangement
  • The exact work, version and portions covered by each licence route
  • Authority to offer multiple routes and treatment of third-party contributions
  • Recipient choice, eligibility and conditions for accessing each route
  • Route-specific obligations, downstream choices and changes over time

Out of scope

  • The full interpretation of individual licences
  • General copyright ownership and intellectual-property adjudication
  • A complete dependency inventory for a software product
  • Product pricing, sales operations and commercial strategy beyond licence-route differences
  • Successive relicensing where no multiple-route arrangement exists

Why it exists Filled

Enable an agent to recognise a multi-licensing arrangement, establish which licence routes cover a particular work and use, and identify the evidence needed before choosing or offering a route.

Distinguishing features Filled

  • Identify at least two licence routes covering the same work or an explicitly shared portion; different licences on unrelated components are insufficient.
  • Establish that recipients may choose between alternative licence routes; cumulative requirements alone do not qualify, and a separately negotiated route qualifies only when it provides such a choice.
  • Check the actual licensed content: differently licensed editions with no established shared coverage do not by themselves demonstrate multi-licensing.
  • Distinguish an alternative licence grant from permission to combine works under compatible licences.
  • Record whose terminology is being used, since the GNU licensing analysis at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-compatibility.en.html distinguishes disjunctive dual licensing from selling exceptions, which others call dual licensing.

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

  • Combine the terms of separate licences as if they applied together.
  • Claim a work is available under a licence its rights holder has not offered.
  • Remove licence notices or copyright statements when redistributing a multi-licensed work.
  • Give definitive legal advice on licence compatibility for a specific product.

Only with a human decision

  • Choosing which licence to accept for a product that will be distributed.
  • Relicensing contributions from other authors.

May

  • Identify all licences a work is offered under and state which one a recipient has chosen.
  • Explain in general terms how the obligations differ between the offered licences.

Moral aspects Filled

  • Licence choice decides who can use, change and profit from shared work.
  • Contributors may not expect their work to be offered under commercial terms.

Who is affected

  • Authors and contributors
  • Users and redistributors
  • Downstream projects

Owners Filled

Steward

The rights holder who offers the licences.

Links to other meta-models Filled

parent

  • Q118135229 - registry parent class
  • Q451967 - registry parent class

What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled

Identity and identifiers required Filled

  • Vercy registry: vr.tr.multi-licensing
  • Wikidata: Q1367082 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1367082)

Direct properties not applicable Not applicable

  • Terminological interpretation: Recipient-choice licensing; public licence plus negotiated alternative; cumulative usage; disputed or unspecified
  • Licence-route count: Integer count of distinct evidenced routes for a specified work, recipient class and date
  • Coverage overlap: Each route linked to covered works, versions, files or other portions
  • Choice mechanism: Recipient election; eligibility-dependent election; negotiated grant; cumulative terms; unresolved
  • Offering authority: Evidenced for all covered material; evidenced for part; disputed; unverified
  • Route availability: Publicly offered; available on agreement; unavailable to this recipient; historical; unresolved
  • Selected route: Recipient and intended action linked to a licence route and supporting evidence

Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.

Recognition optional Filled

  • Appears as a licence notice naming two or more licences, often with the words or, dual or choose.
  • Licence files or package metadata may list several licence identifiers joined by OR.

Capabilities and actions required Filled

  • Classify a purported multi-licensing arrangement from its grants, notices and coverage.
  • Compare evidenced licence routes for a specified use and recipient.
  • Identify missing contributor permissions or excluded material before offering an alternative.
  • Record a route selection and the obligations requiring verification for the intended action.
  • Determine which downstream licence options are evidenced for a particular distributed version.
  • Reassess route availability when content, licence terms or recipient circumstances change.

Hazards and failure modes required Filled

  • Misreading a dual licence as a combined licence can breach obligations.
  • Accepting contributions without clear rights can block a project from offering its licences.

Standards and interfaces required Filled

  • The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, provides an international copyright framework underlying the rights licensed.
  • ISO/IEC 5962:2021, issued by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, standardizes software package data exchange and supports licence expressions that distinguish alternative licences from cumulative obligations.

Context of use required Filled

  • Multi-licensing appears in software, documentation, datasets and other copyrighted works offered under alternative permission terms.
  • Recipients use the available routes to select terms compatible with their intended use, while publishers use them to support different distribution or commercial arrangements.
  • The applicable choices depend on the exact work, version, rights holders and accompanying licence notices.

Sources Filled

  1. Wikidata item Q1367082: multi-licensing - identity and sense of the item
  2. Wikipedia: Multi-licensing - general description of the item

Open questions

  • Does the registry intend multi-licensing specifically in software copyright practice, or also for other works and classes of rights?
  • Should cumulative licensing count as an instance under this registry entry, or remain a contrasting use of the term?
  • Which attributed definitions best explain the boundary between alternative licensing and selling exceptions?
  • What minimum evidence should establish shared coverage when public and negotiated licences apply to differently packaged editions?
  • How should jurisdiction-dependent uncertainty about route switching and previously granted permissions be represented without asserting a universal rule?

Machine files

Provenance

thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed

Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q1367082/spec.json