Skip to main content

TRG 7.07 - Legal notice for non-code (e.g. KITS, documentation, images, slidesets, issue content)

StatusCreatedPost-History
Active27-06-2025Integration of non-code rules
Active25-Apr-2024Updates for CC-BY-4.0 license
Active18-Jul-2023Update: improved description
13-Apr-2023Initial version

Why​

Eclipse Tractus-X is an open source project hosted by the Eclipse Foundation licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (Apache-2.0). For non-code the default license is the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0).

The legal obligations of the content must be observed in all forms of which the content is available.

All products delivered by the project—including websites, documentation, slides, KITS and help must include certain notices. Documentation might include a notice in either the pre- or post-amble, or a website might provide this information in a common footer, or a dedicated page. (From: Eclipse Foundation Project Handbook)

Description​

Eclipse Tractus-X allows the following licenses: Apache-2.0 and CC-BY-4.0 for non-code.

In this TRG, by non-code artifacts we mean KITs, other documentation including the embedded images, slidesets, the content of issues or discussion in the Github organization (this is non-exhaustive list). All of these artifacts have to include notices about copyright, license and source location information. Excluded are the legal documentation files.

The CC-BY-4.0 is the default license for non-code. Deviating from the default is an exceptional case! For some documentation, though, it may makes sense to put it under the Apache-2.0 license, especially for technical documentation with code snippets embedded.

For the KIT documentation it is recommended to put it under the CC-BY-4.0. The following KIT documentation MUST be licensed under the CC-BY-4.0:

  • Adoption View (adoption-view.md)

Self-created content embedded in the listed KIT documentation files under the CC-BY-4.0, have also to be licensed under the CC-BY-4.0.

Generally self-created artifacts like images, graphics and logos should go under the CC-BY-4.0.

tip

Think about "old-fashioned" printed documents:
Attributions for non-code artifacts, like documentation files, have to be visible for the receiver, that means it has to be added to the content, NOT in comments, metadata, or alt text (images).

See also the human-readable summary of the CC-BY-4.0.

Documentation​

For text files, like files in the markdown format, the attribution is done directly in the file as described in this section. The attribution is shown with an example for a CC-BY-4.0 licensed markdown file. For other formats like slides, pdf, and others adapt the information in an adequate way.

Add a NOTICE section (post or preamble) into your dedicated documentation file, with the following information:

## NOTICE

This work is licensed under the [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode).

- SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 202x {Owner}
- Source URL: https://github.com/eclipse-tractusx/<myrepo>/<link_to_doc_or_doc_dir> (+)

(+) URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable

tip

If there are multiple copyright holders, insert several SPDX-FileCopyrightText lines, for each entry one line. Explanations in brackets, do not copy. PLEASE.

- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Owner1 (-> Owner1 created the content in 2022)
- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Owner2 (-> Owner2 created the content in 2021)
- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Contributors to the Eclipse Foundation

Self-created content​

Self-created non-text content like an image should have the copyright and license information included, whereever possible, e.g., the information can be added at the bottom of an image.

Example:

COPYRIGHT(C) 202x {owner}[ and others] | THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION 4.0 INTERNATIONAL LICENSE (CC BY 4.0)

If images (and other file types) cannot be attributed directly, attribution has to consider two distribution paths of the content.

Embedded content in a distributed document​

If the file is embedded in a document, that is distributed as standalone document, e.g., as a generated PDF, the attribution MUST be done within the embedding document, either in the caption of the file, e.g., below the place the file is embedded, or in the notice section as described in the previous section. See an example for the notice section:

## NOTICE

This work is licensed under the [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode).

- SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Owner1
- Image(s): https://github.com/eclipse-tractusx/<myrepo>/<link_to_image_or_image_dir>
- Source URL: https://github.com/eclipse-tractusx/<myrepo>/<link_to_doc_or_doc_dir>

- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Owner2
- Diagram(s): https://github.com/eclipse-tractusx/<myrepo>/<link_to_diagram_or_diagram_dir>

Repository Content​

As the file is also provided in the repository and can be consumed there, the attribution MUST be done in the repository as well. This can be done with a workaround. Create a new file with the same name and the .license postfix next to the image with the following content:

This work is licensed under the [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode).

- SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 202x {owner}[ and others]
- Source URL: https://github.com/eclipse-tractusx/<myrepo>/<link_to_image_or_image_dir> (+)

(+) URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable

Example:

project/
|__ docs/
|   |__ adoption-view.md
|   |__ img/
|      |__ image1.jpg
|      |__ image1.jpg.license
|      |__ image2.png
|      |__ image2.png.license
|__ LICENSE
|__ LICENSE_non-code

This is the recommended way of REUSE Software.

If multiple images need to be attributed, the REUSE Software project proposes the use of the REUSE.toml file format. This is an alternative way to specify attributions for many files that cannot be attributed directly like images. This file can be placed anywhere in a file system hierarchy and allows to refer to many files and provide the necessary attribution. As the whole concept is a bit more complex but very well described by the REUSE Software project, we refer at this point to the corresponding specification for further details.

See an example filesystem structure for the REUSE.toml file:

project/
|__ docs/
|   |__ adoption-view.md
|   |__ REUSE.toml
|   |__ img/
|      |__ image1.jpg
|      |__ image2.png
|__ LICENSE
|__ LICENSE_non-code

In this example the REUSE.toml file contains the following information:

version = 1

[[annotations]]
path = ["img/*.jpg", "img/*.png"]
precedence = "closest"
SPDX-FileCopyrightText = "202x {owner}[ and others]"
SPDX-License-Identifier = "CC-BY-4.0"

Third-party content​

If you third-party content, e.g. images, graphics, logos in your artifacts or repositories, the images have to be attributed with the following information:

  • Title
  • Author/Copyright
  • License
  • Source

The attribution MUST be documented as described in the previous section, i.e., within the embedding artifact or using an extra file to store the information. In addition, reference the third-party content in the repositories NOTICE file at the root level

Example - photo with direct attribution:

Direct attribution

![example](@site/static/img/oss_example_Creative_Commons_10th_Birthday.jpg)

Attribution: ["Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657)
by [Timothy Vollmer](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/) is licensed under [CC-BY-4.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Addition for the notice section:

Also add this section to the NOTICE file at root level, section "Third-party content"

### Third-party content

- Title: "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"
- SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: [Timothy Vollmer](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/)
- Source URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657

See more: best_practices_for_attribution

NOTICE​

This work is licensed under the CC-BY-4.0.