{"id":"CERN-OHL-P-2.0","title":"CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Permissive","reviewed_on":"2026-09-15","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://www.ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/Documents/CERN-OHL-version-2","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"Models the permissive variant of version 2 of the CERN Open Hardware Licence. The record follows Apache-2.0 for its permissive shape and carries no reciprocity at all, which is exactly what separates it from the W and S variants written in the same review group. A reader should note that the subject matter is hardware design material, not only software.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"File name, license id, SPDX id and IRI agree. The SPDX name carries a plain hyphen before 'Permissive', so dct:title needed no correction. cc:legalcode and dct:source point at the CERN wiki page that publishes all three variants.","action":"none"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:target","description":"dalicc:CreativeWork is carried next to dcmitype:Software because the licensed material is not software: 'Source means information such as design materials or digital code which can be applied to Make or test a Product'. Design materials, schematics and documentation are creative works, and the Product made from them is a physical object the asset vocabulary cannot name at all.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Section 3.1 to 3.4 and section 4 grant copying, conveying, modification, conveyance of modified source and the making and conveying of Products. dalicc:ChangeLicense with a dalicc:compliantLicense duty models 3.4: 'You may Convey Covered Source or modified Covered Source under licence terms which differ from the terms of this Licence'. dalicc:patentGrant models section 6.1. dalicc:chargeDistributionFee is carried because the patent grant expressly covers 'offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer' the Products.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"Three prohibitions: dalicc:promote for 7.2, dalicc:addLimitation for 2.3 ('You shall not attempt to restrict by contract or otherwise the rights granted under this Licence to other Licensees') and dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination for 6.2.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"Notices travel with the work, so cc:Notice and cc:Attribution hang off distribute, modify and derive, and dalicc:modificationNotice off modify and derive: 'add a Notice to the modified Covered Source stating that You have modified it, with the date and brief description of how You have modified it'. No cc:SourceCode duty and no cc:ShareAlike: the permissive variant requires neither, and section 4 asks only that 'the recipient of the Product has access to any Notices applicable to the Product'. This departs from the review group note, which expected a source duty on all three variants; the text does not support one for P.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Sections 5.1 and 5.2 are quoted verbatim into dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and dalicc:LiabilityLimitation, headings included. Six further clauses are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses: 2.3, 3.4, section 4, the patent grant 6.1, the patent retaliation 6.2 and the name and logo clause 7.2.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"Section 2.2 says the licence 'shall apply worldwide and without limitation in time', so dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:perpetual are the text's own words.","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Section 7.3 lets a licensor release under 'any version of the CERN-OHL with that variant' and makes CERN-OHL-S the default when no variant is named. That is an or-later option scoped by variant, which dalicc:orLaterVersionOption (a plain boolean) cannot express; it is left off rather than bent. Proposed: reuse dalicc:shareAlikeVersionQualifier, which the 2026-09-15 review defined and applied nowhere.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer, run with the 39 axioms of licensedata/dependencygraph/dg_default.ttl, returned no conflicts.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"P, W and S share definitions, the disclaimer, the liability limitation, the patent grant, the patent retaliation, the name and logo bar and the no-restriction bar. Three separate records are justified: the share-alike scope is different in each and it changes every compatibility answer.","action":"none"}],"family":"Educational, hardware and logistics","port_of":null,"variant_kind":null,"notes":"Modelled from the SPDX plain text, which is identical to the text at the CERN wiki. The licence writes 'Licence' and spells its disclaimer headings with a double hyphen; both are kept as they stand. No long dash appears in the source."}