c\\CLIPolOpen Licence Information

Tool · Compare

Licence text comparison.

Pick any two licences in the catalogue and read them side-by-side — what each permits, requires, and forbids, with the practical differences highlighted. Useful when you're choosing a licence, auditing one you've inherited, or explaining the difference between two similar-looking options.

What the comparison shows

Every licence in the CLIPol catalogue carries the same permission profile — seven facets that capture the practical behavior of the licence in real reuse decisions:

  • Use the work. Whether viewing, reading, or running the licensed material is permitted at all.
  • Share & adapt. Whether redistribution and modification are permitted.
  • Commercial use. Whether the licence permits use for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. The commercial / non-commercial distinction is one of the most-contested in open-licence interpretation.
  • Sublicense. Whether the licensee may grant the same rights to third parties under different terms — the distinguishing feature between "permissive" and most copyleft licences.
  • Requires attribution. Whether the licensee must credit the original author when redistributing or adapting.
  • Requires share-alike. Whether derivative works must be released under the same licence (or a compatible one) — the copyleft mechanism.
  • Forbids DRM / TPMs. Whether the licence forbids applying technical protection measures that would restrict downstream reuse rights.

How to use it

Open any licence detail page — for example, CC BY 4.0 or the GeoBase / Canada family — and switch to the Comparison tab. The seven-facet permission profile renders side by side. To compare two licences, open both detail pages in adjacent tabs and read the profiles together.

Why the comparison matters

Licence selection decisions on real projects almost always come down to a handful of practical questions: do my downstream users need to be able to use this commercially? Will I be combining this material with other open-licence sources? Will my own derivatives need to remain open under the same terms? Choosing the right licence is much easier when those questions can be answered against a consistent permission profile rather than against the original licence text directly.