From 4a8bd809ca358beec7ac17910aa168c175c470ed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Dr. Gernot Starke" Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2026 16:06:45 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] docs(license): clarify that internal adaptations need not be published The license pages repeated the CC deed sentence "if you remix, transform, or build upon material from arc42, you must distribute your contributions under the same license", which corporate readers understood as an obligation to publish every internal customization. ShareAlike only triggers when adapted material is shared with the public, so the sentence now names that condition, and a new section spells out what the license means for companies: internal adaptation without any publication, attribution required on distribution, and own architecture content unaffected by CC BY-SA. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01CDejMSpSy82t69XYBMyPY6 --- LICENSE.txt | 7 +++++-- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt index 08d811d9..5bd1ac34 100644 --- a/LICENSE.txt +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ We, the licensors, (Gernot Starke and Peter Hruschka, the creators of arc42) can You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes to arc42 were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. -If you remix, transform, or build upon material from arc42, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. +If you remix, transform, or build upon material from arc42 and share the result outside your own organization, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. +What this means for companies: You can copy, modify and use arc42 inside your organization without ever publishing anything. The ShareAlike condition applies when you make an adapted version of the template available outside your organization, for example on your website, in a public repository or as part of a product you ship. -You are completely free to use or publish your own content, even if it is embedded in the arc42 template, according to your own rules. \ No newline at end of file +You are completely free to use or publish your own content, even if it is embedded in the arc42 template, according to your own rules. Publishing an architecture document in arc42 structure does not place your own content under CC BY-SA. + +Details: https://arc42.org/license