mbostock/d3 — Issue #437: License Clarification
Author: mkfs
Created: 2012-01-10 23:13:26+00:00
State: open

This is not an actual issue, but a request for additional information that should, ultimately, be searchable by the public.

The license file https://raw.github.com/mbostock/d3/master/LICENSE contains a pretty stock license for standard applications and libraries, but it's a bit confusing when applied to web applications.

When hosting the d3 package, a server "redistributes" it in source code form to a browser client, so condition 1) should apply.

This defeats (to some extent) the purpose of using the minimized/uglified versions of the javascript code. If these were treated as "binary redistribution", then condition 2) should apply.

In this case, however, the copyright notice is buried in a documentation file that may not ever be accessed by the end user, which seems a disservice.

What is the recommended way to incorporate d3 into a proprietary/commercial/non-open web application? Would it suffice to include the copyright notice and a link to the license file (or a copy thereof) as an HTML comment in the pages that use d3?