[dxwg] Allow license property to link to other than LicenseDocument

nicholascar has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/dxwg:

== Allow license property to link to other than LicenseDocument ==
In many ontologies that contain references to licenses, a property such as dcterms:license is used to link to a license document. ADMS links to a dcterms:LicenseDocument which is "A legal document giving official permission to do something with a Resource". ADMS' properties defined for a LicenseDocument are title, description & type. 

These properties, and the intention of the dcterms:LicenseDocument, are for human actions however we would do well to better cater for machine actions, such as license type hierarchies (this is possible through dcterms:type for a dcterm:LicenseDocument but that's not its intention) and especially, nuanced evaluation of license' requirements.

Creative Commons already implements an RDF class model (<https://creativecommons.org/ns>) that includes classes of item that such as Requirement and Prohibition that can be used to make a license that is a collection of objects and this better allows for machine actions. I have previously extended this work with a methodology for machine handling of some license Requirements in an [Agreements Ontology](https://github.com/nicholascar/agr-o), see the [example about what Agreements (license is a subclass) make Agents do](https://github.com/nicholascar/agr-o/blob/master/examples/what-agreements-make-agents-do.md).

If we allow datasets to indicate a license that is not just a LicenseDocument or, if it is, it is an extended version of dcterms:licenseDocument with element classes and properties, then we can allow for machine handling. 

We need not exclude linking datasets to just LicenseDocuments but should encourage object use, not document use.



Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/dxwg/issues/114 using your GitHub account

Received on Tuesday, 13 February 2018 21:42:04 UTC