Summary

PublicSchema uses a dual license. The reference model is freely available under a Creative Commons license. The software that builds and serves it is available under the Apache License.

In practice: you can use the reference model in your systems, documentation, and data exchanges without restriction, as long as you provide attribution.

Reference model: CC BY 4.0

The reference model, including concept definitions, property definitions, controlled value sets, and credential schemas (everything under the schema/ directory in the source repository), is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You are free to:

Under the following terms:

Code: Apache License 2.0

The software in this project, including the build pipeline, the website source code, tests, and configuration files (everything under build/, site/, and tests/), is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

You may use, modify, and distribute the code under the terms of the Apache License. See the LICENSE file for the full text.

JSON-LD context and JSON Schemas

The generated JSON-LD context (ctx/draft.jsonld) and JSON Schema files are considered part of the reference model and are covered by the CC BY 4.0 license. They are machine-readable representations of the definitions.

Third-party standards and systems

PublicSchema references international standards (ISO, HL7 FHIR, UN, ISCED, ISCO) and includes mappings to external systems (OpenIMIS, OpenSPP, and others). These standards and systems retain their own licenses and terms.

The CC BY 4.0 license applies only to the definitions, mappings, and value sets authored by PublicSchema. It does not grant any rights over the referenced standards or external system schemas themselves. Where PublicSchema values correspond to codes defined by an international standard, the standard body remains the authoritative source.

Attribution

When using the PublicSchema reference model, appropriate attribution is:

Based on PublicSchema, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Questions

If you have questions about licensing or use of PublicSchema, please open an issue on GitHub.