OCLC Research Public License 2.0

Also known as OCLC 2.0, OCLC Research Public License 2.0, OCLC-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/OCLC-2.0

Permissions

Charge distribution fee from the text
Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Add statement from the text
- Attribution from the text
- Contribution grant back from the text
- Notice from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Duties
- Add statement from the text
- Attribution from the text
- No-warranty notice from the text
- Notice from the text
- Patent freedom condition from the text
- Source code from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Add statement from the text
- Attribution from the text
- Contribution grant back from the text
- Notice from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

Add limitation from the text
Change license from the text
Charge license fee from the text
Promote from the text

License-wide duties

Share alike from the text

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.

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

YOU AGREE THAT THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED AS-IS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND (EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED). ACCORDINGLY, OCLC MAKES NO WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS OR GUARANTEES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS OR GUARANTEES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AS TO: (A) THE FUNCTIONALITY OR NONINFRINGEMENT OF PROGRAM, ANY MODIFICATION, A COMBINED WORK OR AN AGGREGATE WORK; OR (B) THE RESULTS OF ANY PROJECT UNDERTAKEN USING THE PROGRAM, ANY MODIFICATION, A COMBINED WORK OR AN AGGREGATE WORK.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU HEREBY WAIVE ANY CLAIMS FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND AGAINST CONTRIBUTORS WHICH MAY RESULT FROM YOUR USE OF THE PROGRAM.

Additional clauses

Except as necessary to recognize third-party rights or third-party restriction (see below), a distribution of the Program in any of the forms listed below must not put any further restrictions on the recipient’s exercise of the rights granted herein. As a Contributor, you represent that your Modification(s) are your original creation(s) and, to the best of your knowledge, no third party has any claim (including but not limited to intellectual property claims) relating to your Modification(s). You represent that each of your Modifications includes complete details of any third-party right or other third-party restriction associated with any part of your Modification (including a copy of any applicable license agreement). The Program must be distributed without charge beyond the costs of physically transferring the files to the recipient. This Warranty Disclaimer/Limitation of Liability must be prominently displayed with every distribution of the Program in any form: If you distribute the Program in a form to which the recipient can make Modifications (e.g. source code), the terms of this license apply to use by recipient. In addition, each source and data file of the Program and any Modification you distribute must contain the following notice: If you distribute the Program in a form to which the recipient cannot make Modifications (e.g. object code), the terms of this license apply to use by recipient and you must include the following statement in appropriate and conspicuous locations: "Copyright (c) 2000- (insert then current year) OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and other contributors. All rights reserved." In addition, the source code must be included with the object code distribution or the distributor must provide the source code to the recipient upon request. Distributions of Combined Works are subject to the terms of this license and must be made at no charge to the recipient beyond the costs of physically transferring the files to recipient. A Combined Work may be distributed as either modifiable or non-modifiable code. The requirements of Section 3.B or 3.C above (as appropriate) apply to such distributions. An "Aggregate Work" is when the Program exists, without integration, with other programs on a storage medium. This License does not apply to portions of an Aggregate Work which are not covered by the definition of "Program" provided in this License. You are not forbidden from selling an Aggregate Work. However, the Program contained in an Aggregate Work is subject to this License. Also, should the Program be extracted from an Aggregate Work, this License applies to any use of the Program apart from the Aggregate Work. For purposes of permitting use of your Modifications by OCLC and other licensees hereunder, you hereby grant to OCLC and such other licensees the non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sublicenseable license to execute, copy, alter, delete, modify, adapt, change, revise, enhance, develop, publicly display, distribute (internally and externally) and/or create derivative works based on your Modifications (and derivative works thereof) in accordance with these Terms. This Section 4 shall survive termination of this License for any reason. This non-exclusive license (with respect to the grant from a particular Contributor) automatically terminates for any entity that initiates legal action for intellectual property infringement (with respect to the Program) against such Contributor as of the initiation of such action. If you fail to comply with this License, your rights (but not your obligations) under this License shall terminate automatically unless you cure such breach within thirty (30) days of becoming aware of the noncompliance. All sublicenses granted by you which preexist such termination and are properly granted shall survive such termination. Except for the copyright notices required above, you may not use any trademark of any of the Contributors without the prior written consent of the relevant Contributor. You agree not to remove, alter or obscure any copyright or other proprietary rights notice contained in the Program. All transfers of the Program or any part thereof shall be made in compliance with U.S. import/export regulations or other restrictions of the U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as other similar trade or commerce restrictions which might apply. Any patent obtained by any party covering the Program or any part thereof must include a provision providing for the free, perpetual and unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use by any third party. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or settlement relating to intellectual property infringement or any other cause of action, conditions are imposed on you that contradict the conditions of this License, such conditions do not excuse you from compliance with this License. If you cannot distribute the Program so as to simultaneously satisfy your obligations under this License and such other conditions, you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, you could not satisfy both the patent license and this License, and you would be required to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program. If you learn of a third party claim or other restriction relating to a Program you have already distributed you shall promptly redo your Program to address the issue and take all reasonable steps to inform those who may have received the Program at issue. An example of an appropriate reasonable step to inform would be posting an announcement on an appropriate web bulletin board. The provisions of this License are deemed to be severable, and the invalidity or unenforceability of any provision shall not affect or impair the remaining provisions which shall continue in full force and effect. In substitution for any provision held unlawful, there shall be substituted a provision of similar import reflecting the original intent of the parties hereto to the extent permissible under law. The Original Contributor from time to time may change this License, and the amended license will apply to all copies of the Program downloaded after the new license is posted. This License grants only the rights expressly stated herein and provides you with no implied rights or licenses to the intellectual property of any Contributor. This License is the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between the parties concerning the subject matter hereof and may not be amended except by the written agreement of the parties. This License shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio and the United States of America, without regard to principles of conflicts of law.

Info

Target asset types: Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://spdx.org/licenses/OCLC-2.0.html
Legal code: http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/software/license/v2final.htm
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
Attribution name: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
SPDX identifier: OCLC-2.0 on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier: OCLC-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/OCLC-2.0",
  "license-title": "OCLC Research Public License 2.0",
  "spdx-id": "OCLC-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/OCLC-2.0> .

RDF, JSON-LD

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

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OCLC-2.0" rel="license">OCLC Research Public License 2.0</a>.</p>

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

Badge

Markdown

[![License: OCLC Research Public License 2.0](https://dalicc.net/license-library/OCLC-2.0/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/OCLC-2.0)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/OCLC-2.0"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/OCLC-2.0/badge.svg" alt="License: OCLC Research Public License 2.0"></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: 9 recorded, 6 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The OCLC Research Public License is a reciprocal licence for research code: distribution must be under this licence, at no charge beyond the cost of transferring the files, with the warranty disclaimer prominently displayed and a prescribed notice in every source file. The record carries a licence-wide share-alike duty and five prohibitions. Nothing here is legal advice.

9 findings

info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

dcmitype:Software alone, following EclipsePublicLicense10 and EPL-2.0, the two records of this family already in the library. The text licenses a Program, that is software in source code and object code form, so neither dalicc:CreativeWork nor dcmitype:Dataset is written.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

Section 1 grants "a non-exclusive, worldwide, no-charge, transferable license to execute, prepare derivative works of, and distribute (internally and externally), for commercial and noncommercial purposes, the original code contributed by Original Contributor and all Modifications". cc:CommercialUse is therefore expressly permitted. dalicc:chargeDistributionFee is permitted because the licence allows the costs of physically transferring the files to be recovered. The word sublicense appears only in section 4, where You grant rights to OCLC, so dalicc:sublicense is not written as a permission of the licensee.
major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

Five. dalicc:ChangeLicense, because "The distribution of the Program must be under the terms of this license"; dalicc:chargeLicenseFee, because "The Program must be distributed without charge beyond the costs of physically transferring the files to the recipient"; dalicc:addLimitation, because a distribution "must not put any further restrictions on the recipient's exercise of the rights granted herein"; dalicc:promote, because "you may not use any trademark of any of the Contributors without the prior written consent of the relevant Contributor"; and dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination for section 5, which is wider than a patent clause, since it terminates the licence for any action for intellectual property infringement against a Contributor.
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

cc:ShareAlike is licence-wide, from section 2. cc:SourceCode hangs on odrl:distribute, from section 3.C: "the source code must be included with the object code distribution or the distributor must provide the source code to the recipient upon request". dalicc:noWarrantyNotice is on odrl:distribute too, because the warranty disclaimer "must be prominently displayed with every distribution of the Program in any form". The prescribed notice of section 3.B and the copyright statement of 3.C give dalicc:addStatement, cc:Notice and cc:Attribution on the three acts. There is no requirement to mark changes, so dalicc:modificationNotice is not written.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:additionalClauses applied

The warranty and liability paragraph of section 3.A is split at "IN NO EVENT SHALL" into the two fields. dalicc:additionalClauses carries sections 3.A, 3.B, 3.C, 3.D, the grant-back of section 4, the termination of section 5 and the whole of section 6.
info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction applied

Section 6 states that the licence "shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio and the United States of America". As everywhere in this review group, cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and the clause is quoted.
gap Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

Three gaps, all quoted. Section 4 grants OCLC and other licensees a sublicensable licence over your Modifications; proposed dalicc:contributionGrantBack, the term the EU DataGrid record also needs. Section 6 requires any patent covering the Program to allow free commercial and non-commercial use by any third party; proposed dalicc:patentFreedomCondition. Section 6 also puts export control on the distributor and requires a distributor who learns of a third party claim to redo the Program and inform recipients; no term is proposed for the latter.
info Rubric 9 record none

The consistency check of app.services.composer with the axioms of dg_default returned an empty list for this record.
info Rubric 10 family none

OCLC-2.0 belongs to no family in this review group. Its licence-wide cc:ShareAlike duty, its no-charge rule and its further-restrictions bar put it next to SimPL-2.0 and the GNU records rather than next to the Common Public License.

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.

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.

View version 2 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
5 changes
- changed permission cc:CommercialUse
  
  was permission cc:CommercialUse
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Subject to these terms and conditions of this License, the OCLC Office of Research (the "Original Contributor") and each subsequent contributor (collectively with the Original Contributor, the "Contributors") hereby grant you a non-exclusive, worldwide, no-charge, transferable license to execute, prepare derivative works of, and distribute (internally and externally), for commercial and noncommercial purposes, the original code contributed by Original Contributor and all Modifications (collectively called the "Program")."
- changed prohibition dalicc:addLimitation
  
  was prohibition dalicc:addLimitation
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "A. General Requirements Except as necessary to recognize third-party rights or third-party restriction (see below), a distribution of the Program in any of the forms listed below must not put any further restrictions on the recipient’s exercise of the rights granted herein."
- changed prohibition dalicc:chargeLicenseFee
  
  was prohibition dalicc:chargeLicenseFee
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "The Program must be distributed without charge beyond the costs of physically transferring the files to the recipient."
- changed prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  was prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Except for the copyright notices required above, you may not use any trademark of any of the Contributors without the prior written consent of the relevant Contributor."
- 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.
Version 1

Created from the license text on 2026-09-15 (Eclipse, Common Public and Lucent).

View version 1 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML

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.