{ "model": { "rank": 4807, "code": "thing-q79719", "model_id": "vr.tr.license", "name": "license", "purpose": "Let an agent explain kinds of licences and their conditions, support applying for and complying with licences in general terms, explain intellectual property licensing, and separate senses.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q79719/", "tier": 2, "score": 72, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "franchise stamp", "donationware", "vehicle licence", "OSI-approved license", "tax disc", "export license", "Eclipse Public License", "Common Development and Distribution License", "knife dealer's licence", "Autoconf Configure Script Exception", "Open General Export Licence", "residence permit", "traffic licences", "occupational license", "software licensing", "broadcasting rights", "Creative Commons Attribution - NoDerivs 3.0 Intergovernmental Organization", "complementary certificate", "train driving licence", "parking license", "contractor license", "Sendmail Licencse", "patent license", "trademark licensing agreement", "Open Source AI Definition", "property license", "public domain", "hunting license", "experimental use permit", "miner's licence", "hardware license", "broadcast license", "software license", "compulsory license", "Alliance licence", "pass permit", "proprietary license", "liquor license", "horse-riding licence", "Import license" ], "aliasCount": 91, "merged": 91, "knownIn": 72, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.license", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q79719", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79719", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T22:51:39Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q79719", "registryId": "vr.tr.license", "name": "license", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q79719/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.license", "name": "license", "purpose": "Let an agent explain kinds of licences and their conditions, support applying for and complying with licences in general terms, explain intellectual property licensing, and separate senses.", "definition": "An official permission or contract granting the right to do, use or possess something otherwise restricted, including driving and vehicle licences, professional and business licences, export licences, broadcasting licences, and intellectual property licences such as software licences approved by the Open Source Initiative or donationware terms; licences are issued by authorities or rights holders under conditions and may be revoked.", "what_it_is_for": "Permissions to do or use something.", "affordances": [ "explain kinds of licence", "support applications and compliance", "explain intellectual property licences", "separate senses" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Grants permission", "Conditional", "Revocable", "Regulatory or contractual" ], "appearance": "Documents, cards, stamps or digital records; historically tax discs and franchise stamps.", "visual_identification": [ "Permission granted under conditions", "Regulatory or contractual", "A certificate attests a fact but may not grant permission" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "driving and vehicle licences", "professional and business licences", "export, import and trade licences", "broadcasting and spectrum licences", "intellectual property and software licences" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "permit", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "contract", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "open-source software", "why": "software licences" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "pistol", "why": "firearms licensing" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Licensing laws by domain", "Copyright and contract law for IP licences", "Open Source Definition for approved licences" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Operating without a licence", "Licence non-compliance", "Confusing licence types" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Which licence.", "rationale": "Senses.", "layers": [ { "id": "sense", "name": "Sense", "description": "Which kind.", "findings": [ { "id": "sense-finding", "name": "Sense", "description": "Sense.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a regulatory licence such as a driving or business licence, or an intellectual property licence such as a software licence, meant?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "requirements", "name": "Requirements", "description": "Is a licence needed.", "findings": [ { "id": "requirements-finding", "name": "Requirements", "description": "Requirements.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a licence required for this activity here, and which authority issues it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What are the conditions and penalties?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Getting and keeping a licence.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Applying.", "findings": [ { "id": "apply-finding", "name": "Apply", "description": "Applying.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does one apply for this licence, and what documents and fees are needed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How long does it take?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "comply", "name": "Comply", "description": "Compliance and renewal.", "findings": [ { "id": "comply-finding", "name": "Comply", "description": "Compliance.", "questions": [ { "text": "What conditions must be kept, and how are licences renewed or revoked?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user seeking legal advice on a specific case?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ip", "name": "IP", "description": "Intellectual property licences.", "rationale": "Rights.", "layers": [ { "id": "software", "name": "Software", "description": "Software licences.", "findings": [ { "id": "software-finding", "name": "Software", "description": "Software licences.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does this software or content licence permit and require, and is it OSI-approved or another kind such as donationware?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How do licences combine?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "draft", "name": "Draft", "description": "Drafting licences.", "findings": [ { "id": "draft-finding", "name": "Draft", "description": "Drafting.", "questions": [ { "text": "What should a licence agreement cover, such as scope, territory, term and royalties, in general terms?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which standard licences exist?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of licensing.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did licensing develop, from royal grants and franchise stamps to modern regulatory and IP licences?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What were tax discs?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can licensing concepts be taught?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each licence type be a separate entry?", "How should licensing authorities be localised?", "How should licence texts be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "work, medium or creative form", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a license, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain kinds of licences and their conditions, support applying for and complying with licences in general terms, explain intellectual property licensing, and separate senses.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: franchise stamp, donationware, vehicle licence, OSI-approved license, tax disc, export license, Eclipse Public License, Common Development and Distribution License, knife dealer's licence, Autoconf Configure Script Exception, Open General Export Licence, residence permit.", "91 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a license, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "franchise stamp", "donationware", "vehicle licence", "OSI-approved license", "tax disc", "export license", "Eclipse Public License", "Common Development and Distribution License", "knife dealer's licence", "Autoconf Configure Script Exception", "Open General Export Licence", "residence permit" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 91 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one license from another, and a license from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a license sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a license from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a license passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a license between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a license, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a license is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a license says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a license contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a license and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of license a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For license, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of license exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made license and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to license, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in license, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a license came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a license and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a license is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a license, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a license, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a license is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }