We provide the guidelines that we use to determine if a work is free in the document entitled The DataSHIELD Community Free Software Guidelines. We promise that the DataSHIELD Community system and all its components will be free according to these guidelines. We will support people who create or use both free and non-free works on DataSHIELD Community. We will never make the system require the use of a non-free component.
When we write new components of the DataSHIELD Community system, we will license them in a manner consistent with the DataSHIELD Community Free Software Guidelines. We will make the best system we can, so that free works will be widely distributed and used. We will communicate things such as bug fixes, improvements and user requests to the upstream authors of works included in our system.
We will keep our entire bug report database open for public view at all times. Reports that people file online will promptly become visible to others. In the case of a potential disclosure problem we will attempt to make the community aware of the issue promptly, but without providing details which could be abused.
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free software community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We will support the needs of our users for operation in many different kinds of computing environments. We will not object to non-free works that are intended to be used on DataSHIELD Community systems, or attempt to charge a fee to people who create or use such works. We will allow others to create distributions containing both the DataSHIELD Community system and other works, without any fee from us. In furtherance of these goals, we will provide an integrated system of high-quality materials with no legal restrictions that would prevent such uses of the system.
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of works that do not conform to the DataSHIELD Community Free Software Guidelines. Although non-free works are not a part of DataSHIELD Community, we support their use and provide infrastructure for non-free packages (such as our bug tracking system and mailing lists).
DataSHIELD Community has many potential uses.
Sustaining such a diverse community depends upon the interaction and contributions of all participants, no matter how small or how large those contributions are. We encourage all participants to share ideas in a timely fashion. In particular, we encourage Users who have successfully implemented DataSHIELD Community to share their experiences through the forum and with the Core Groups and Themes that they are affiliated with.
We request that networks and consortia who use DataSHIELD Community notify the Steering Committee of any reports or publications (including scientific, clinical and other works) that are publicly available so that they can be included in a repository of dependent works listed on the DataSHIELD Community website.
The license of a DataSHIELD Community component may not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license may not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form.
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of patch files with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software. (This is a compromise. The DataSHIELD Community group encourages all authors not to restrict any files, source or binary, from being modified.)
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavour. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a DataSHIELD Community system. If the program is extracted from DataSHIELD Community and used or distributed without DataSHIELD Community but otherwise within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the DataSHIELD Community system.
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be free software.
The GPL, BSD, and Artistic licenses are examples of licenses that we consider free.
The concept of stating a social contract with our community was adopted from the Debian Project based on an idea originally suggested by Ean Schuessler. The Debian Free Software guidelines were drafted by Bruce Perens and refined by the other Debian developers in 1997, then accepted as the publicly stated policy of the Debian Project. This document was adapted from the Debian Free Software Guidelines in March 2022 by the DataSHIELD Community project, initially led by the DataSHIELD Advisory Board and then further refined at a conference to which all community members were invited.