Legal
Terms of Use
These terms govern your use of the openroots.org website. They do not govern the licences themselves. Each instrument is a separate legal document with its own operative text, and nothing here modifies it.
What this site is
openroots.org publishes a set of licences, plain-language summaries of them, a compatibility matrix, and supporting reference material. It is a publication, not a service.
No account is required, nothing is sold here, and there is no paid tier of this website.
The licences are separate from these terms
Where anything on this site conflicts with the operative text of a licence, the licence governs. Summaries, deeds, matrices, and explanatory notes carry no legal force and are not warranties about the instruments they describe.
Adopting a licence creates a relationship between you and the Licensor of the work you adopted it for. It creates no relationship between you and this project.
No legal advice
Nothing published here is legal advice, and reading it forms no attorney-client relationship. The instruments have not been reviewed by counsel, which is stated on every licence page alongside the specific questions that remain open.
Before adopting any licence for work that matters commercially, take advice from a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Accuracy and the comparison material
The compatibility matrix and the comparison of other licences represent this project's reading of publicly available texts and publicly reported events. They are offered in good faith and may be wrong.
Where another licence is described, that description is commentary. It is not a statement made on behalf of that licence's steward, and it does not bind them.
Acceptable use of the site
You may read, quote, link to, and archive anything published here. You may not:
- Present altered licence texts as though they were published by this project.
- Use automated means to place load on this site that interferes with others reading it.
- Represent yourself as speaking for OpenRoots.
Availability and changes
This site is provided as is, with no guarantee of availability. Published licence versions are never edited, and each remains reachable at its canonical address. Everything else on this site may change without notice.
These terms may be updated. The date above records the last change.
Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, this project accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on material published here. Nothing excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.