Three-Dimensional Printing Open License

= draws on the unique characteristics of three-dimensional printing to construct a license that incorporates enforceable documentation, attribution and copyleft provisions [1]

see also: 3D Printing and Open Source Hardware Licensing

Text

Draft proposal by by Eli Greenbaum:

"The Three-Dimensional Printing Open License (“License”) has been constructed specifically for situations in which a digital design is used to generate physical articles in an automated manufacturing process, and its application may not be clear in other situations. You may not use a work licensed under this License except in compliance with these terms. You are not obligated to agree to these terms, but nothing else grants you the right to use a work licensed hereunder.[126]

1. Definitions. The following terms, when capitalized in the body of this License, shall have the meanings set forth below.

1.1 “Build Form” means any form of the Work which is provided to any device for the manufacture of a Printed Article in an automated manufacturing process.

1.2 “Copyright” means copyright and any similar right (including any rights of industrial design and any semiconductor topography rights), whether registered or unregistered.[127]

1.3 “Derivative Work” means any work that is a derivative of the Work under applicable law. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a Derivative Work does not include any work that may be separately represented in a digital file that does not include any part of the Work itself.

1.4 “Internal Purposes” means for internal or personal research and development purposes. A distribution of Printed Articles to third parties not under your the sole control or not working solely on your behalf creates a presumption that your modifications are not for Internal Purposes.

1.5 “Licensor” means any individual or entity that creates or has knowingly contributed to the creation of the Work, but does not include an individual or entity that only distributes a Work or Printed Article.

1.6 “Modified Notice” means a notice (a) incorporating the information in a Required Notice, (b) stating that You have modified the Work, and (c) satisfying any other requirements of this License.

1.7 “Printed Article” means a physical article created by using digital files of the Work in an automated manufacturing process.

1.8 “Required Notice” means any element of a Work which provides (a) information regarding the authorship of the Work and stating that the Work is provided under this License, or (b) providing direction to a URL which displays the information listed under clause (a). A Required Notice also includes any element of a Work which causes the imprinting of the foregoing information on a Printed Article.

1.9 “Source Form” means the preferred form for making modifications to the Work. Source Form does not include file formats in which only minor changes (such as repair, resizing or changes of orientation may be made), such as STL file formats.

1.10 “Work” means any work licensed under this License and any work intentionally incorporated into a work licensed under this License.

1.11 “You” means any individual or entity in possession of a Work.

2. Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Licensor hereby grants to you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license under its Copyrights to (a) reproduce, modify, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute the Work and such Derivative Works in Source Form or Build Form, and (b) generate Printed Articles using the Work.

3. Conditions. Your exercise of any rights under this License is subject to the following conditions:

3.1 You may not distribute the Source or Build forms of a Work under any terms other than the terms and conditions of this License.

3.2 You may not modify or remove any Required Notice, provided however that you may change the location or size of any Required Notice in the Work, or the location or size of information imprinted by a Required Notice on a Printed Article, so long as (a) the Required Notice remains easily readable by humans in the Source Form of the Work and (b) any imprint or representation of the Required Notice in the Printed Article generated using a Work remains accessible and easily readable by humans or electronic devices.[128]

3.3 If you create a Derivative Work, you must (a) insert a Modified Notice in such Derivative Work and (b) license the Source and Build Forms of such Derivative Work under the terms of this License, provided however that as a limited exception you are not required to insert a Modified Notice in respect of modifications to the Work made only for Internal Purposes.

3.4 If the Required Notice of a Work contains or provides direction to a URL displaying the Source Form of the Work, then the Modified Notice must also contain or provide direction to a URL displaying the Source Form of the Derivative Work. The Source Form available at such URL must be in a format that is easily downloadable and copied, and must be maintained for at least three years from the last time you generated Printed Articles using the Work and as long as you offer spare parts or customer support for the Printed Article.[129] Any attribution or copyright information in the Required Notice may be provided at such URL location rather than in the Modified Notice itself.

3.5 If the Required Notice of a Work causes the imprinting of information onto a Printed Article, the Modified Notice must cause the imprinting of the same type of information on the Printed Article in the same location and format as the imprinting caused by the Required Notice, subject to the exceptions in Section 3.2.

3.6 Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this License, you may remove a Required Notice if the Modified Notice satisfies the conditions of this License.

3.7 As a limited exception to the requirements of this Section 3, if a Printed Article is a non-solid substance then the Required Notice or Modified Notice may be imprinted on the packaging in which the end user is expected to receive the Printed Article.

4. No Removal of Notices from Printed Articles. You may not remove the imprint of any Required Notice on a Printed Article. If You distribute a Printed Article to a third party, you agree to contractually obligate such third party to (a) observe such prohibition, and (b) contractually obligate any further transferees of the Printed Article to agree to observe the prohibitions of this Section as if such transferee were in your position.

5. Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Licensor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable patent license to make, use, offer to sell, sell, and import the Work and any Printed Articles (including the right to exercise such rights through third parties). The license granted by a Licensor under this provision applies only to Printed Articles created in an automated manufacturing process in which a Copyright of the Work is necessarily infringed. This patent license does not apply to any Printed Works created in violation of the terms of this License. In addition, the license granted by a Licensor under this provision applies only to patent claims that are necessarily infringed by (a) elements of the Work that have been intentionally included in the Work by the Licensor or (b) the combination of such elements with the work in which such elements were originally included.[130]

6. No Trademark License. This License does not grant rights to use the trademarks of the Licensor, except for reproducing and describing the content of any Required Notice.

7. Disclaimer of Warranty. To the extent permitted under applicable law, the Work (including all Contributions) are provided on an “As Is” Basis, without warranties or representations of any kind. In addition, no warranty or representation is provided regarding any Printed Article that may be generated through use or application of the Work or any Derivative Work thereof. Licensor and all Contributors disclaims all express, implied or statutory warranties, including, without limitation, any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purposes, title or non-infringement in respect of the Work or any Printed Article that may be generated through use or application of the Work or any Derivative Work thereof.

8. Limitation of Liability. Unless required pursuant to applicable law, no Licensor shall have any liability to You for damages under any cause of action, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages of any kind (including without limitation any commercial damages or damages in respect of loss or profits, loss of data, loss of economic opportunities, loss of goodwill), even if such Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Your use of the Work and any Printed Article is at your own risk.

9. Additional Warranties. You may choose to offer to third parties support, warranty and indemnity or liability obligations additional to those provided under the terms of this License, provided that such terms are consistent with the terms of this License. You may charge for the provision of the foregoing. In accepting such obligations, You may act only on Your own behalf and must clarify to any recipient of the Work or Printed Article that you are acting only on Your own behalf.

10. Interpretation. If any provision of Sections 7 (Disclaimer of Warranty) or 8 (Limitation of Liability) is unenforceable under applicable law, such provision shall be interpreted as necessary to give maximum effect to such provision as possible under applicable law." (http://jipel.law.nyu.edu/2013/04/three-dimensional-printing-and-open-source-hardware/)