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2026

CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal

Also known as CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal, CERN-OHL-W, CERN-OHL-W-2.0.

Commercial use
allowed
Share alike
required
Attribution
required (keep the copyright and license notices)
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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/CERN-OHL-W-2.0

Permissions

  • Change license from the text Replacing the license of the work, or of an adaptation, with another license, or changing its terms.
  • Charge distribution fee from the text Charging a fee for the act of providing a copy of the work to someone else.
  • Commercial use from the text Using the work to generate income, directly or indirectly, for example by selling it or by using it in advertising.
  • Derivative works from the text Distributing an adaptation of the work and making it available to the public.
  • Derive from the text Creating a new work from the work, such as a translation, adaptation or arrangement of it or of a part of it.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Modification notice from the text Marking a changed work as changed, saying how it differs from the original and keeping earlier notices of change.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Share alike from the text Adaptations have to be licensed under the same license or one the license names as compatible.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Display from the text Showing the work to the public without making a copy the viewer keeps.
  • Distribute from the text Providing copies of the work to the public or to anyone else.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Modified works from the text Distributing a modified version of the work that does not amount to a new, derivative work.
  • Modify from the text Altering the work, for example by updating it, without creating a new work; an alteration that creates a new work is Derive.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Modification notice from the text Marking a changed work as changed, saying how it differs from the original and keeping earlier notices of change.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Share alike from the text Adaptations have to be licensed under the same license or one the license names as compatible.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Patent grant from the text Granting a license under the patent claims that a contributor holds and that the contribution necessarily infringes.
  • Present from the text Performing the work in public, including by broadcast or other communication to the public.
  • Reproduce from the text Making copies of the work in any form.

Prohibitions

  • Add limitation from the text Not permitted: Add limitation. Adding further limitations or restrictions to the license terms when passing the work on.
  • Promote from the text Not permitted: Promote. The text says: "Any such permitted use shall be factual and shall not be made so as to suggest any kind of endorsement or implication of involvement by the Licensor or its personnel." Using the name or trademarks of the licensor or of contributors to endorse or promote a product.

License-wide duties

This license states no duties that apply to the work as a whole.

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

No default rule of that graph reaches this license: it speaks about every act the rules are about.

Further terms

These are the things the license says about itself beyond the acts it permits, forbids and requires: when it ends, how long there is to put a breach right, which law governs it, and so on. A term that comes from the DALICC vocabulary links to its definition.

Patent license ends if you sue
Yes. Not a ban on suing: a patent claim over the work ends the patent license, or the whole license, as the text provides.
Cure period
30 days
Reciprocity scope
source
Terminates on breach
Yes

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY -- The Covered Source and any Products are provided 'as is' and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, of satisfactory quality, non-infringement of third party rights, and fitness for a particular purpose or use are disclaimed in respect of any Source or Product to the maximum extent permitted by law. The Licensor makes no representation that any Source or Product does not or will not infringe any patent, copyright, trade secret or other proprietary right. The entire risk as to the use, quality, and performance of any Source or Product shall be with You and not the Licensor. This disclaimer of warranty is an essential part of this Licence and a condition for the grant of any rights granted under this Licence.

Limitation of liability

EXCLUSION AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY -- The Licensor shall, to the maximum extent permitted by law, have no liability for direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, exemplary, punitive or other damages of any character including, without limitation, procurement of substitute goods or services, loss of use, data or profits, or business interruption, however caused and on any theory of contract, warranty, tort (including negligence), product liability or otherwise, arising in any way in relation to the Covered Source, modified Covered Source and/or the Making or Conveyance of a Product, even if advised of the possibility of such damages, and You shall hold the Licensor(s) free and harmless from any liability, costs, damages, fees and expenses, including claims by third parties, in relation to such use.

Additional clauses

You shall not attempt to restrict by contract or otherwise the rights granted under this Licence to other Licensees.

Info

Target asset types
Creative work (i.e. text, picture, sound, movie), Hardware, Software
Region / jurisdiction
Worldwide
Validity
Perpetual
Source
https://www.ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/Documents/CERN-OHL-version-2
Legal code
https://www.ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/Documents/CERN-OHL-version-2
This description is published under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher
CERN
SPDX identifier
CERN-OHL-W-2.0 on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier
CERN-OHL-W-2.0

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar 

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/CERN-OHL-W-2.0",
  "license-title": "CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal",
  "spdx-id": "CERN-OHL-W-2.0",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle 

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/CERN-OHL-W-2.0> .

RDF, JSON-LD 

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/CERN-OHL-W-2.0"
  }
}

HTML attribution 

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/CERN-OHL-W-2.0" rel="license">CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge DALICC badge for CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal

Markdown 

[![License: CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal](https://dalicc.net/license-library/CERN-OHL-W-2.0/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/CERN-OHL-W-2.0)

HTML 

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/CERN-OHL-W-2.0"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/CERN-OHL-W-2.0/badge.svg" alt="License: CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by
Giray Havur
Written on
2026-09-15
Second review
not yet done
Record changed since this review
yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings
11 recorded, 5 applied to the record, 0 proposed

Models the weakly reciprocal variant of version 2 of the CERN Open Hardware Licence. Modified Covered Source stays under the licence, but a Product made from it may be licensed on other terms. The record expresses that with cc:ShareAlike as a duty on modify and derive rather than as a license-wide duty, which is what separates it from the S record.

11 findings

  • info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId none

    File name, license id, SPDX id and IRI agree; the SPDX name already uses plain hyphens.

  • major Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

    dalicc:CreativeWork next to dcmitype:Software, for the same reason as in the P record: the licensed material is design material, not only code.

  • major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

    Sections 3.1 to 3.3 and 4.1 grant copying, conveying, modification and the making and conveying of Products. dalicc:patentGrant models 7.1. dalicc:ChangeLicense is not permitted, because 3.3(d) requires modified Covered Source to be licensed under this Licence.

  • major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

    dalicc:promote (8.2), dalicc:addLimitation (2.3), dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination (7.2) and dalicc:ChangeLicense (3.3(d)).

  • major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

    cc:ShareAlike is a duty on odrl:modify and odrl:derive, not a license-wide duty, on the strength of 3.3(d): 'license the modified Covered Source under the terms and conditions of this Licence ... Such modified Covered Source must be licensed as a whole, but excluding Available Components contained in it or External Material to which it is interfaced'. cc:SourceCode hangs off distribute, modify and derive for 3.2 and 4.1. cc:Attribution, cc:Notice and dalicc:modificationNotice keep the placement of the P record.

  • minor Rubric 6 dalicc:additionalClauses applied

    Sections 6.1 and 6.2 are quoted into dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and dalicc:LiabilityLimitation. Eight clauses are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses, among them 3.2, 3.3(d), 4.1, 4.3 and the termination and reinstatement pair 8.4 and 8.5.

  • info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction none

    Section 2.2 gives worldwide effect without limitation in time.

  • gap Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

    Automatic termination on breach has no property that a record can carry: dalicc:terminationOnBreach is a policy quality with no predicate. The clause is quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses. Proposed term: dalicc:terminatesOnBreach as a boolean property on odrl:Set, with the cure period as a literal. Text: 'This Licence shall terminate with immediate effect if You fail to comply with any of its terms and conditions' (8.4), with reinstatement in 8.5.

  • gap Rubric 8 odrl:duty none

    Subsection 4.3 exempts the Product from the reciprocity that binds the Covered Source. The model has no way to scope a share-alike duty to part of a work, so the record puts cc:ShareAlike on modify and derive and quotes 4.3. Proposed term: dalicc:reciprocityScope as a literal qualifier on a cc:ShareAlike duty, with values such as file, source or whole-product.

  • info Rubric 9 record none

    The consistency check of app.services.composer, run with the 39 axioms of licensedata/dependencygraph/dg_default.ttl, returned no conflicts.

  • info Rubric 10 record none

    Against CERN-OHL-S-2.0 the only modelled difference is the attachment level of cc:ShareAlike, plus the quoted 4.2 and 4.3 clauses about External Material and Product licensing. Against CERN-OHL-P-2.0 it adds cc:SourceCode, cc:ShareAlike and the ChangeLicense prohibition.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

  1. Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

    The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

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    2 changes

    • changed prohibition dalicc:promote

      was prohibition dalicc:promote

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Any such permitted use shall be factual and shall not be made so as to suggest any kind of endorsement or implication of involvement by the Licensor or its personnel."

    • added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>

      Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.

  2. Version 1

    Created from the license text on 2026-09-15 (Educational, hardware and logistics).

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Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.