{"id":"GFDL-1.2-or-later","title":"GNU Free Documentation License v1.2 or later","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GFDL-1.2-or-later.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models the or-later reading of version 1.2 of the GNU Free Documentation License. The legal text is the same document as GFDL-1.2-only, so the record copies that record statement for statement and changes the identifier, the SPDX identifier, the title, the alternative names and dalicc:orLaterVersionOption, which is true here. dalicc:variantKind \"version-option\" and dalicc:variantOf point back at GFDL-1.2-only. Read the review of GFDL-1.2-only for what every statement is based on.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"File name, identifier, SPDX identifier and the local name of the IRI are the same string, GFDL-1.2-or-later. SPDX gives the or-later reading an identifier of its own, which is why it is a record of its own.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"The odrl:target of GFDL-1.2-only is copied unchanged: one odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dalicc:CreativeWork and dcmitype:Software.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"dalicc:orLaterVersionOption","description":"Section 10 states: \"If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License \"or any later version\" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.\" That sentence is the whole difference between this record and GFDL-1.2-only. The clause is quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses because the base record quotes it there.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Every permission of GFDL-1.2-only is copied with the same duties in the same places: dalicc:chargeDistributionFee, odrl:reproduce, odrl:distribute, odrl:display, odrl:present, odrl:modify, dalicc:ModifiedWorks, odrl:derive, cc:DerivativeWorks and cc:CommercialUse.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"The four prohibitions of GFDL-1.2-only are copied: dalicc:ChangeLicense, dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures, dalicc:promote and dalicc:sublicense.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:duty","description":"The license-wide cc:ShareAlike duty is copied, as are cc:Attribution, cc:Notice and cc:SourceCode on distribute, modify and derive and dalicc:modificationNotice and dalicc:rename on modify and derive.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer","description":"The Warranty Disclaimers paragraph of section 1 is copied verbatim from GFDL-1.2-only, and so are the ten quoted clauses. Version 1.2 gives no limitation of liability, so dalicc:LiabilityLimitation is absent here as well.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"cc:jurisdiction dalicc:worldwide, dalicc:validityType dalicc:perpetual, dalicc:terminatesOnBreach true and dalicc:sublicenseSurvival true are copied from the base record. cc:legalcode and dct:source point at the same text as the base record, because the text is the same document.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:variantOf","description":"dalicc:variantOf is not defined in the vocabulary yet, so the validator reports it as an undefined DALICC term, and the value \"version-option\" is not in the list of variant kinds the vocabulary comment gives. Both are needed for a record that keeps the text of another record and changes what that text grants or requires.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The vocabulary gaps of the base record are inherited: the Invariant Sections, the Cover Texts, the Transparent copy, the History section and the preservation of Warranty Disclaimers have no term. Proposed terms dalicc:invariantSections, dalicc:coverTexts, dalicc:transparentCopy and dalicc:historySection, with the clauses quoted.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer with the axioms of dg_default returned an empty conflict list, the same result as for GFDL-1.2-only.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"Against GFDL-1.2-only the record differs in the identifier, the SPDX identifier, the title, the four alternative names, dalicc:orLaterVersionOption, dalicc:variantKind and the new dalicc:variantOf relation, and in nothing else.","action":"applied"}],"family":"GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"version-option","variant_of":"GFDL-1.2-only","notes":"The SPDX text for GFDL-1.2-or-later is byte for byte the text for GFDL-1.2-only; both files have the same checksum. The or-later identifier says how a document uses the license, not what the license says."}