Liblicense

System Overview

Purpose

To provide a simple way for developers to make their applications license aware. Additionally, supplemental modules aim to provide a method for users to track licenses of files on their system. This project complements Companion File metadata specification and Tracker CC Indexing.

Architecture

Config Modules

• in_use() - returns whether or not the corresponding config system exists on the computer
• get() - returns the current default license uri
• set(uri) - sets the default license uri and returns 0 upon success (non-zero for errors)

I/O Modules

• mime_types - null terminated list of handled mime-types (all indicates external storage method which works for any file)
• read(filename) - returns the license uri for the given file (embedded license takes precedence)
• write(filename,uri) - writes the license uri for the given file

License Files (.rdf)

Attributes

• cc:license
  • about
  • permits
  • requires
  • prohibits
• dc:title - The human readable name of the license.
• dc:description - Description of the license.
• dc:coverage - The jurisdiction of the license. (country code from ISO3166)
• dc:language - The language of the license. (language code under RFC3066)
• dc:relation
  • hasVersion - version number
  • isReplacedBy - indicates retired license (URI)
  • isBasedOn - indicates ported version (URI)
• dc:rights license - license the license is available under (URI)
• dc:type - always "License"
• dc:creator
• dc:publisher
• dc:identifier - URI of license (URI)

Example

Frontends

See Desktop Integration

Timeline

6/18

• Finalize liblicense API.

6/25

• Write liblicense.
• Stub config and IO modules.

7/2

• liblicense python bindings.

7/9

• Gconf config module.
• Nautilus IO module.

7/16

• Nautilus GUI frontend.
• Gnome control panel frontend.

7/23

• Sugar Journal backend.
• Sugar frontend.

7/30

• Bug hunting.
• Frontend polishing.

8/6

8/13

8/20