Licensing
Relab licenses four layers separately. Which one applies depends on what you are reusing, not on which repository you found it in.
| Layer | Licence |
|---|---|
| Platform software: the code behind the backend, app, website, and this docs site | AGPL-3.0-or-later |
| API specification: the OpenAPI schemas this repository generates, and their client types | Apache-2.0 |
| Site content: the writing on the docs site and on cml-relab.org | CC BY 4.0 |
| Curated dataset releases | CC BY 4.0, planned |
Code samples inside the documentation are Apache-2.0, not CC BY: a copied sample lands under the same terms as a generated client. Whatever the layer, the Relab name, logo, and wordmark are not licensed; see Names and marks below.
Why the API specification is carved out
Section titled “Why the API specification is carved out”The platform is copyleft, including over a network, so a hosted fork stays open. Applying that to the API would make anyone writing a client, an importer, or a pipeline inherit obligations from a file that only describes an interface. An interface description is thin copyright in any case: Directive 2009/24/EC art. 1(2) excludes the ideas and principles underlying a program’s interfaces from protection.
Apache-2.0 rather than a public-domain dedication because the carve-out also covers generated TypeScript client types. Those are software, which Creative Commons advises against covering with a CC licence, and Apache-2.0 carries an explicit patent grant.
Generate a client from the public or device schema and you inherit no copyleft.
The carve-out covers the two schemas this repository generates, openapi.public.json and
openapi.device.json. openapi.rpi-cam.json (the RPi camera API) is fetched
verbatim from the separate
relab-rpi-cam-plugin repository and carries
whatever licence that project sets, currently Apache-2.0 as well. Check there before reusing it.
Dataset releases
Section titled “Dataset releases”Curated releases are planned under CC BY 4.0. No release has been published yet; see Dataset for what a release will contain.
CC 4.0 licenses the EU sui generis database right alongside copyright, so one instrument covers both the structure of the database and its contents. Attribution is the whole obligation, which keeps a release usable for machine-learning work.
Site content
Section titled “Site content”The writing on this docs site and on the main site (pages, guides, explanations, diagrams) is CC BY 4.0. Quote it, translate it, teach from it, adapt it; credit Relab and say if you changed it. Copyleft obligations are about providing corresponding source, which means nothing for a paragraph.
Code samples are the exception: they are Apache-2.0, the same licence as a client generated from the API specification. Creative Commons advises against covering software with a CC licence.
Names and marks
Section titled “Names and marks”Relab, the logo, and the wordmark are not covered by any licence on this page. Neither AGPL, Apache-2.0, nor CC BY grants rights in them; CC BY says so explicitly (§2(b)(2)).
Reuse the software, the specification, the writing, and the data freely. Use the name and the mark only to refer to this project, not to identify your own work as Relab or to imply endorsement. Nominative use (naming Relab as a source, citing it, writing about it, showing a screenshot in a paper or a talk) needs no permission.
Two limits no licence changes
Section titled “Two limits no licence changes”Personal data is governed by the GDPR regardless of the licence. A licence grants permissions over material the licensor may lawfully distribute; it cannot make publication of personal data lawful. What makes a release publishable is the sanitisation applied when building it, described in Security and hardening, not the CC BY grant on top.
CC BY grants no trademark rights (CC BY 4.0 §2(b)(2)). Teardown photographs necessarily show brand marks and model numbers. The licence covers those images as images; it licenses nothing about the marks in them.