Article I. Definitions

Some terms may be defined in other sections of the OSLC IP Policy (“this IP Policy”), in which case the terms are enclosed by parentheses and quotation marks, and capitalized.

“Affiliate” means any Entity that Controls, is Controlled by, or is under common Control with, another Entity, so long as such control exists. In the event that such Control ceases to exist, such Affiliate will be deemed to have withdrawn from OSLC. “Control” means, with respect to an Entity, direct or indirect beneficial ownership of or the right to exercise (i) greater than fifty percent (50%) of the voting stock or equity of that Entity, or (ii) greater than fifty percent (50%) of the ownership interest representing the right to make the decisions for that Entity in the event that there is no voting stock or equity.

“Compliant Implementation” means an implementation of all required portions of a Final Specification within the bounds of the Workgroup Charter.

“Contribution” means a submission in writing or electronically to a Specification being developed by a Workgroup, which may include, but is not limited to, suggestions, comments, recommendations, feedback, or edits by a Member proposing an addition to or modification of a Specification.

“Core Workgroup” means the the OSLC Core Workgroup, which defines essential technical elements that should be common to all OSLC Specifications, and offers guidance on common concerns for creating, updating, retrieving, and linking to lifecycle resources. The Core Workgroup creates Specifications that embody these essential technical elements and the best practices its Workgroup Members have learned as a community and from the work of the other OSLC Workgroups. Specifications created by other OSLC Workgroups should be based on the Specifications created by the Core Workgroup, enabling the other Workgroups to focus more exclusively on domain-specific concerns.

“Draft Specification” means a Specification that is under development, revision, consideration or the like by a Workgroup, but is not yet a Final Specification.

“Entity” means any group of two or more persons and/or other groups of persons acting for a collective purpose, including, but not limited to: organizations, corporations; partnerships; non-profit organizations; academic institutions; government agencies; trade associations and SDOs.

“Entity Group” means a group comprised of the OSLC Member that signs the WPA, the Entity specified in the WPA as being represented by the OSLC Member, and Affiliates of the Entity.

“Entity Group Member” means a member of an Entity Group, including any of the OSLC Member that signed the WPA, the Entity specified in the WPA as being represented by the OSLC Member and Affiliates of the Entity.

“Final Specification” means a Draft Specification that has been approved in final form by the Steering Committee.

“Independent OSLC Member” means an OSLC Member who executed an OSLC Member Agreement as an independent individual and does not represent another Entity.

“IPR Review Period” means a period of thirty (30) days following notification to Workgroup Members that a Draft Specification is ready for review prior to approval as a Final Specification by the Steering Committee.

“Necessary Claim” means a claim of a patent or patent application other than design patents and design registrations, throughout the world that: (a) is owned, controlled, or licensable by an Entity Group Member now or at any future time; and (b) is necessarily infringed by implementing those required portions of a Final Specification that is within the Workgroup Charter, provided that a claim is necessarily infringed only when there is no technically reasonable non-infringing alternative for implementing such portions of the Final Specifications. A Necessary Claim does not include any (i) claim contained in the same patent or patent application as a Necessary Claim that does not itself satisfy the definition of a Necessary Claim; (ii) claim that would require a payment of a royalty or other consideration by the Entity Group Member to an unaffiliated third party; (iii) claim covering any enabling technology that may be necessary to develop, design, manufacture, sell or use a Compliant Implementation but is not expressly set forth as required in a Final Specification (examples of such technologies include without limitation: basic computer or network technology, semiconductor manufacturing technology, compiler technology, basic operating system technology); (iv) claim covering the implementation or use of specifications or documents published by entities other than OSLC that are referenced in the body of a Final Specification but not described with specificity; or (v) claim covering any product or process that are not required for conformance with the Final Specification.

“OSLC” means the OSLC Members, collectively; i.e., the OSLC Members collectively constitute OSLC.

“OSLC Governance and Participation Documents” means, collectively: this IP Policy, the OSLC Bylaws; the OSLC Member Agreement; Workgroup Participation Agreement; and any other OSLC documents setting forth OSLC governance or participation rules that are approved by the OSLC Steering Committee.

“OSLC Member” means an individual who executes an OSLC Member Agreement.

“OSLC Website Terms of Use” means the terms of use of the OSLC Website.

“OSLC Website” means the domain: http://open-services.net, and any sub-domains thereof, or any successor domain under which the OSLC primarily operates. All policies governing participation in, or contributions to, the general website, independent of OSLC Membership, are controlled by the OSLC Website Terms of Use.

“Other Material” means any material, other than a Specification, and may include but is not limited to, roadmaps, scenarios, white papers, wiki or blog entries, forum postings, or instruction and directional documents.

“Other Submission” means any submission to Other Material.

“Specification” means a document that prescribes, in a complete, precise, and verifiable manner, the requirements, behavior, and interfaces of a software system or component, or the method by which multiple Specifications should be used together, to provide an interoperable development or run-time environment for open lifecycle integrations technologies and techniques.

“Steering Committee” means the committee defined in the Section of these Bylaws titled “Steering Committee.”

“Target SDO” means a standards development organization (SDO) to which a Final Specification of a Workgroup is intended to be contributed.

“Workgroup” means a group of OSLC Members who collectively develop for OSLC a Specification and perhaps Other Material under the terms and conditions of the relevant OSLC Governance and Participation Documents, including the Workgroup Participation Agreements that each OSLC Member who participates in the Workgroup must execute to become a Workgroup Member.

“Workgroup Member” means, for a specific Workgroup, an OSLC Member who has signed a Workgroup Participation Agreement to become a member of the Workgroup.

“WPA” means Workgroup Participation Agreement.

Article II. Obligations Upon Joining a Workgroup

By signing a WPA for a Workgroup, an OSLC Member becomes a Workgroup Member of the Workgroup and binds the Entity Group Members to the terms and conditions of this IP Policy.

By signing a WPA, Workgroup Member, on behalf of its Entity Group Members, represents, warrants and covenants to the OSLC that

1. Workgroup Member has the authority to execute the WPA and to perform its obligations under this IP Policy;
2. the execution and performance of the WPA does not and will not violate any agreement to which an Entity Group Member is a party or by which Entity Group Member is otherwise bound;
3. when executed and delivered, the WPA will constitute a legal, valid and binding obligation of Entity Group Members, enforceable in accordance with its terms;
4. Workgroup Member’s Contributions do not violate or incorporate the copyright or trade secret interests of another party;
5. neither providing nor using Workgroup Member’s Contributions are conditioned upon additional agreements other than the licenses granted herein;
6. Workgroup Member has no knowledge that any claim has been asserted against any Entity Group Member in writing that Workgroup Member’s Contribution would violate any intellectual property rights, including patent rights, of another party; and
7. Workgroup Member has no knowledge that Workgroup Member has been intentionally shielded by another Entity Group Member from access to any information for the purpose of evading this obligation.

Article III. Patents

C. Defensive Suspension or Termination

A Workgroup Member may suspend or terminate a Royalty-free License or RAND License to any party that:

1. asserts a patent in litigation against a Compliant Implementation, or
2. otherwise knowingly asserts or threatens to initiate a lawsuit that would assert that a Compliant Implementation would infringe a patent owned or controlled by such party,

unless such party withdraws the patent assertions in 1 or 2 above promptly after being informed that the assertions are being made against a Compliant Implementation.

D. Transfer of Necessary Claims

Workgroup Member agrees that any transfer of its Necessary Claims shall be subject to the licensing grant under Article III of this Agreement or shall otherwise provide in some other way that the license grant shall continue after such transfer. Workgroup Member further agrees that

1. to the knowledge of Workgroup Member, no Entity Group Member has transferred or licensed any Necessary Claims for the purpose of avoiding its obligations under this IP Policy, and
2. no Entity Group Member shall transfer or license any Necessary Claims for such purpose.

E. Termination and Survival

Notwithstanding a Workgroup Member’s withdrawal from this Workgroup, or termination or withdrawal of its membership in OSLC, a Workgroup Member’s patent license commitments under Article III shall remain in full force and effect for any Final Specification of this Workgroup for which a Draft Specification was posted on the OSLC Website prior to such withdrawal or termination (“Participated Specification”).

For any Final Specification for which a first Draft Specification was posted on the OSLC Website after such withdrawal or termination (“Future Specification”), a Workgroup Member’s license grants under Article III shall remain in full force and effect for a given Necessary Claim only if:

1. such Necessary Claim also was a Necessary Claim in a Participated Specification; and
2. the Future Version has not materially deviated from the Scope of the Workgroup Charter.

Article IV. Copyrights

A. Contributions

Workgroup Member grants to other Workgroup Members a worldwide, irrevocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable, royalty-free, fully paid-up copyright license to reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute to other OSLC Members and publish on the OSLC Website its Contributions and such derivative works for the sole purpose of developing Draft and Final Specifications of this Workgroup for publication on the OSLC Website.

B. Final Specifications

Workgroup Member grants to OSLC an irrevocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable, royalty-free, fully paid-up copyright license to publish Final Specifications on the OSLC Website.

Workgroup Member grants to any party a worldwide, irrevocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable, royalty-free, fully paid-up copyright license to copy and distribute internally within the Entity that employs such party a Final Specification of the Workgroup for the sole purpose of evaluating and/or implementing the Final Specification. No other copyrights, including the rights to create derivative works, publicly distribute, publicly display or publicly perform, a Final Specification are granted to such party. A Compliant Implementation is not considered a derivative work of a Final Specification.

C. Other Submissions

Workgroup Member makes Other Submissions available to all parties under the terms and conditions of the OSLC Terms of Use.

D. Copyright Notice

OSLC shall include the following notice on Final Specifications and any other Material produced by the Workgroup Members for publication:

© Copyright [insert year] by the following authors of the OSLC [Insert name of Workgroup]: [list of Entities represented by authors].

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” AND OSLC , OSLC AND ITS MEMBERS, THE STEERING COMMITTEE AND ITS MEMBERS, THE OSLC WORKGROUP THAT CREATED THIS DOCUMENT AND ITS MEMBERS (“THE OSLC PARTIES”) MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR TITLE; THAT THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE SUITABLE FOR ANY PURPOSE; OR THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCH CONTENTS WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS. NONE OF THE OSLC PARTIES WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO ANY USE OR DISTRIBUTION OF THIS DOCUMENT UNLESS SUCH DAMAGES ARE CAUSED BY WILFUL MISCONDUCT OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE. THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER AND LIMITATION ON LIABILITY DO NOT APPLY TO, INVALIDATE, OR LIMIT REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES MADE BY OSLC MEMBERS TO OSLC AND OTHER OSLC MEMBERS IN CERTAIN WRITTEN POLICIES OF OSLC.

Workgroup Member agrees to include the above notice on all Specifications of the Workgroup, and further agrees to retain such notice in any copies of the Specification that the Workgroup Member produces.

E. Termination and Survival

All obligations pursuant to this Article IV shall survive a Member’s withdrawal from this Workgroup or withdrawal or termination of its membership in OSLC.

Article V. Trademarks, Certification Marks and Logos

In the event that OSLC proposes to adopt any name, logo, trademark, certification mark or trade name (collectively, “OSLC Marks”) for use with any of the Specifications, or with any other documentation, processes or services that implement and conform to the requirements of the Final Specifications, the Steering Committee shall notify the Workgroup Members at least forty five (45) days in advance. OSLC shall take any steps that the Steering Committee deems necessary and proper to protect its rights under such OSLC Marks. Workgroup Member agrees that, unless it provides written Notice to the Steering Committee challenging the use of the proposed Mark prior to its adoption by the Steering Committee, the Member and its Affiliates shall not bring a legal claim against OSLC, any OSLC Member or its Affiliates for their use of such OSLC Marks.

Article VI. No Confidential Information

No Contributions made to this Workgroup shall be subject to any confidentiality restrictions whatsoever, and will be open for public review on the OSLC Website. Accordingly, Workgroup Member shall not submit any Contribution or feedback subject to any requirement of confidentiality, and all Contributions and feedback shall be deemed non-confidential, notwithstanding any markings or representations to the contrary, and no recipient, including OSLC and its Members, shall have an obligation to treat any such material as confidential.

Article VII. Target SDOs

A. Patent Commitments

If a Final Specification is submitted to a Target SDO set forth in the Workgroup Charter of this Workgroup, Workgroup Member, on behalf of the Entity Group, agrees to be bound by the terms and conditions of any patent commitments of the Target SDO with respect to any Specification produced by such Target SDO (“Target SDO Specification”), subject to the following limitations:

1. the Target SDO Specification has a scope that is not materially different from the Scope of the Final Specification;
2. any patent commitments are limited to patent claims that are Necessary Claims with respect to a Participated Specification of this Workgroup; and
3. Workgroup Member does not agree to any terms and conditions that require specifying Necessary Claims or the like with respect to any specification of the target SDO, or to conduct an investigation to determine whether Workgroup Member owns or controls the any Necessary Claims or the like with respect to any specification of the Target SDO.

B. Copyright License

If a Final Specification is submitted to a Target SDO set forth in the Workgroup Charter of this Workgroup, Workgroup Member, on behalf of the Entity Group, grants a worldwide, irrevocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable, royalty-free, fully paid-up copyright license to:

1. reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute to other Target SDO members and publish on the Target SDO website its Contributions and such derivative works for the sole purpose of developing Target SDO Specifications having a scope that is not materially different than the Scope of the Final Specification; and
2. sublicense such Contributions solely as part of such Target SDO Specifications under the terms and conditions prescribed for such Target SDO Specifications by such Target SDO.

Article VIII. OSLC Core Workgroup

In addition to this Workgroup, Workgroup Member agrees to the terms and conditions set forth in this IP Policy for the OSLC Core Workgroup. For the avoidance of doubt, any Contribution of a Workgroup Member to a Specification of this Workgroup may be used as part of a Specification of the OSLC Core Workgroup (“Core Workgroup Specification”) under the terms and conditions of this IP Policy as if such Core Workgroup Specification was a Specification of this Workgroup.

Article IX. No Other Licenses.

By executing a WPA, Entity Group Members neither grant nor receive, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any rights under any copyright, patents or other intellectual property rights of the OSLC or another OSLC Member, unless expressly granted.

Article X. Warranty and Disclaimer of Liabilities

All information provided by a Workgroup Member while working within a Workgroup is provided “AS IS” WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, AND OSLC AND MEMBER EACH EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY WARRANTY OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF ANY PROPOSAL, SPECIFICATION, OR SAMPLE.

Workgroups are acting solely as a facilitator at the request of OSLC Members and for their convenience, and will not be deemed to be an agent of any OSLC Member except as expressly provided in this IP Policy or a WPA. Workgroups shall not be liable to any of the OSLC Members for any action or omission taken or made in good faith that is not in breach of this IP Policy or a WPA. IN NO EVENT WILL OSLC OR ANY OSLC MEMBER BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER OSLC MEMBER OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR THE COST OF PROCURING SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF DATA OR ANY INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, WHETHER UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, WARRANTY OR OTHERWISE, ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THIS OR ANY OTHER RELATED AGREEMENT, WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PARTY HAD ADVANCE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Article XI. Conflicts

To the extent any terms and conditions of this IP Policy conflict with the terms and conditions of the WPA or the Bylaws, the terms and conditions of this IP Policy shall control.

Article XII. Privacy

Unless otherwise stated in this IP Policy, personally-identifiable information that you submit to OSLC in connection with execution of a WPA or participation in a Workgroup, will be handled in accordance with the privacy policies of the OSLC Website. Please click here for information regarding the OSLC Website privacy policies.

Article XIII. Interpretation of this IP Policy

This IP Policy and any WPA within which it is included or incorporated by reference, shall be construed under and governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA, without reference to conflict-of-laws principles.

Scope

Produce an RDF vocabulary and associated semantics for configuration management of linked data, capable of addressing the scenarios described below, covering resources in multiple OSLC domains.

The resulting specification is intended to satisfy cross-cutting domain scenarios (see OSLC Core WG's list of "Common Specification Efforts").

In order to keep the specification easy to adopt yet of broad value and appeal, the workgroup is encouraged to avoid constraining the nature of the resources in a configuration, but rather embrace the open principles of linked data, make appropriate use of existing or developing standards such as the Linked Data Basic Profile, refer to other existing vocabularies if appropriate, and be sparing in the number of resource types and REST services required.

Deliverables

• Elaborated use cases
• An OSLC Configuration Management specification
• RDF vocabulary documents
• A primer with examples
• Test cases
• An Addendum to OSLC SCM 1.0 describing migration strategies

Capabilities

As with most OSLC domains, the specification is to be developed incrementally, adding new scenarios and capabilities over time. For the first iteration, the workgroup shall determine the capabilities required to execute the scenarios described below. It is expected, but not absolutely required, that those capabilities include:

• Create and update configurations
• Identify the version of a given resource within the context of a configuration
• Establish a baseline (snapshot) of a configuration
• Describe the contents of a configuration in terms of sets of changes with respect to some other configuration

Other capabilities might be added to this list, if the workgroup decides they are required for full execution of the elaborated scenarios. For example, a client might need to determine the history of the versions of a resource, or to define the effectivity of a configuration in terms of a time range or similar delineation of scope.

For this first iteration, it is not intended that this workgroup define capabilities for creation, deletion, and other management of versions of resources other than configurations, baselines, change sets, and other resources defined by the configuration management domain. Specifically not in scope for the first iteration are activities such as placing a resource from some other domain under version control, or (to use SCM terminology) checking such resources in or out. Subsequent iterations may extend the specification to include such scenarios.

While the scope of this workgroup does not include all of ITIL or IT Service Management, a configuration as defined by this workgroup shall be able to contain or reference a set of Configuration Items (CIs) and their specific versions, and hence participate in the Identification, Control, and Monitoring activities of ITIL.

Motivation

The OSLC SCM workgroup produced a draft specification for Software Configuration Management, addressing some code browsing scenarios with read-only access. That specification had very limited adoption, partly because the specification was quite complex, involving 16 resource types and several extensions to OSLC core standards, and partly because the specification was seen as addressing only a very narrow range of use cases and problem domains.

During the development of the OSLC SCM draft specification and OSLC Core specification, the OSLC Core workgroup held several discussions about baselines for a general set of linked data resources, but did not complete a baseline extension or separate specification. In the intervening time, the importance of the cross-tool and cross-domain baseline has become increasing evident.

This Configuration Management workgroup shall address these baseline scenarios, providing configurations and baselines for information resources from any domain. It is the intent that the new specification will be less complex than OSLC SCM 1.0, while at the same time enlarged in applicability beyond the software configuration management arena, hence increasing the perceived benefit. To achieve this goal, the specification should allow for low-cost means of integrating tools that already have an existing versioning system, possibly including configurations and baselines, without requiring such tools to re-implement those capabilities. In these cases, the resources to be managed by this cross-tool, cross-domain service may include configurations or baselines defined by existing tools; as such, the service provides composite or aggregate configurations and baselines.

Detailed scenarios and use cases are to be defined and elaborated by the workgroup, but to help provide context to the charter, the use cases are expected to include:

• As a user of a set of OSLC providers, I want to establish a consistent snapshot of the state of resources (a baseline) across all those providers, so that I can record this state for future review and audit.
• As a user of other OSLC services such as Requirements Management, Change Management, Architecture Management, and Quality Management, I want to have traceability of requirements, change requests, design and model elements, and test suites or test cases to the corresponding set of related or dependent changes to other resources (a change set). Note that provision of change sets is expected to be an optional capability in the specification, so as not to exclude simple version management systems such as CVS.
• As a consumer of a set of OSLC providers and their resources, I want to determine if a given resource or change set is or is not included in a given baseline.
• As a quality engineer, or an auditor, I want to compare two baselines so I can see the differences between the two sets of resources and their properties, and hence assess the test needs of, and risks in, the new baseline.

As an example, a composite baseline of OSLC resources might include:

• An oslc_rm:RequirementCollection and the set of oslc_rm:Requirements in that collection, describing the requirements for a particular release of some system
• A set of oslc_am:Resources, describing the use cases and elaborating the designs for the same release of that system
• A set of oslc_qm:TestPlans, oslc_qm:TestCases, oslc_qm:TestResults, etc., describing the tests for the same release of the system

Compatibility

Compatibility with OSLC SCM 1.0 is desired, but not required. An addendum to the SCM 1.0 specification shall be produced describing how to migrate usage of that specification to this Configuration Management specification. Subsequent iterations of the Configuration Management specification may address more compatibility with and extensions to the capabilities in the SCM 1.0 draft. It is also possible that use cases will be found that are considered specific to file-based source control that will not be included in the Configuration Management specification, but might be addressed by a different vocabulary produced by a future SCM workgroup.

Relationship to other activities and workgroups

The Configuration Management Workgroup must collaborate with the ALM-PLM interoperability Workgroup, producing a specification that satisfies, partially satisfies, or is at least compatible with, the versioning requirements expressed by that Workgroup, and proposed as OSLC core extensions. In order to achieve this, the Configuration Management Workgroup must work with the ALM-PLM interoperability Workgroup to agree on the requirements, scenarios, and the resulting vocabulary.

For more information, see the Workgroup Best Practices.

Target Specification Development Organizations (SDOs)

Specifications developed by this WG may be contributed to these SDOs:

• W3C (IP Policy)
• OASIS (IP Policy)
• DMTF (IP Policy)
• OMG (IP Policy)

This contribution to these SDOs is dependent on maturing the specifications within this WG and gaining consensus on the contribution. At that point, the WG would make a proposal to the OSLC Steering Committee for such a move. For more information, see the Workgroup Best Practices.

Participation

Agreeing to become a member of this Workgroup implies some amount of time and contribution to assist in the development and promotion of the specification. There is no minimal amount of time or level of participation.

In so far as they are able, members of the Workgroup should contribute in the following areas:

• attend the teleconferences
• participate in off-line mailing list discussions
• contribute and review scenarios
• participate in prioritization activities
• contribute specification content in the form of proposals and actual specification text
• edit and organize the specification
• address specification issues
• contribute to a test suite
• produce implementation feedback in form of implementation reports

Meetings Frequency and Communications

Meetings are conducted by teleconference. The frequency may vary based on time of year and current cycle of specification development, but will normally be every two weeks. Additional meetings may be held by a subset of the Workgroup on a more frequent basis to work on some focused activities.

Meetings should be announced at least 48 hours in advance. Meeting agendas should be set at least 24 hours in advance.

Mailing list and wikis should be used to capture all work and discussions. This allows Workgroup members who cannot attend meetings to participate and provide feedback.

Decision Policy

Decisions within this Workgroup are consensus driven, facilitated by the Workgroup Lead. The Workgroup members nominate and reach consensus on the Lead.

Intellectual property

Members of this Workgroup agree to this Workgroup Participation Agreement.