<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/" type="topic" id="mal_info_license">

<info>
  <link type="guide" xref="mal_info#elements"/>

  <revision version="0.1" date="2009-05-28" status="review"/>

  <credit type="author">
    <name>Shaun McCance</name>
    <email>shaunm@gnome.org</email>
  </credit>
  <copyright>
    <year>2008-2009</year>
    <name>Shaun McCance</name>
  </copyright>

  <include xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="legal.xml"/>

  <desc>Provide information about the licensing terms of the material.</desc>
</info>

<title>License Information</title>

<synopsis><code mime="application/relax-ng-compact-syntax">
mal_info_license = element license {
  attribute href { text } ?,
  attribute * - (mal:* | local:*) { text } *,

  <link xref="mal_block">mal_block</link> +
}
</code></synopsis>

<p>The <code>license</code> element can be used to provide information about
the licensing terms of the material in a page or section.  The <code>href</code>
attribute can be used to uniquely identify certain licenses.</p>

<!-- BEGIN notes -->
<section id="notes">
  <title>Notes</title>
  <list>
    <item><p>The <code>license</code> element can contain any
    <link xref="mal_block">general block content</link>.</p></item>

    <item><p>The <code>license</code> element can occur in any
    <code xref="mal_info">info</code> element.</p></item>

    <item><p>The <code>href</code> attribute can be used to provide a URI which
    uniquely identifies the license terms.</p></item>

    <item><p>The <code>license</code> element can have attributes from external
    namespaces.  See <link xref="mal_external"/> for more information
    on external-namespace attributes.</p></item>
  </list>
</section>
<!-- END notes -->

<!-- BEGIN processing -->
<section id="processing">
  <title>Processing Expectations</title>

  <p>The <code>license</code> is not necessarily displayed on the page in
  which it appears.  Some tools may display license information on a separate
  informational page or dialog.  When it is displayed, its contents are treated
  as block content.</p>

  <p>There is no requirement that the URI <code>href</code> will actually
  be displayed, or that the <code>href</code> attribute will cause a link
  to be displayed.  If authors wish to ensure that an external resource
  is linked to, they should add a link into the block content.  Processing
  tools may recognize certain license URIs for special processing.  This
  could be used, for instance, to place a license badge at the bottom of
  a displayed page for certain common licenses.</p>
</section>
<!-- END processing -->

<!-- BEGIN comparison -->
<section id="comparison">
  <title>Comparison to Other Formats</title>

  <p>DocBook contains the more general-purpose
  <code href="http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/legalnotice.html">legalnotice</code>
  element, which is frequently used to include licensing terms.  The
  <code>license</code> element is intended mostly for redistribution
  terms, which are not immediately relevent to most readers.  When it
  is important that readers see certain legal information, authors
  should provide that information in the main content, possibly on a
  separate page.</p>
</section>
<!-- END comparison -->

</page>
