Inquiry Regarding Commercial Use of WebWork/OPL Problems in Commercial Textbook

[sdtanyanlan]

My name is Peter Tan, and I am a faculty member at Jiangsu University. I have been using WebWork as an invaluable teaching tool since 2015 and would like to express my gratitude to the community for maintaining such an excellent open-source platform.

I am writing to seek clarification regarding the licensing and copyright permissions for using WebWork problems in a commercial textbook, mainly used in my university. The textbook is scheduled to be formally published soon. To support the learning experience, I have set up a local WebWork server and translated selected practice problems into Chinese. These problems are not printed in the book but are accessed by students via hyperlinks embedded in the textbook, directing them to my local server.

Given that the textbook is a commercial publication, I want to ensure full compliance with all relevant licenses. Specifically, I would appreciate your guidance on the following question: all problems I intend to use originate from the Open Problem Library (OPL) and translated into Madarin, Does linking to these translated problems from a commercially sold textbook constitute "commercial use" that violates the NonCommercial clause?

I am committed to respecting the intellectual property rights of problem authors and the WebWork community. Any guidance, documentation references, or contacts you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time and for your continued dedication to open-source mathematics education.

[Alex-Jordan]

Hi Peter, thanks for your inquiry about this. I don't have answers, but I would suggest that you either bring this up at the OPL repository ( https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork-open-problem-library) or contact The WeBWorK Project (https://openwebwork.org/) which holds copyright over many WeBWorK things, although not everything in the OPL.

On Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 3:54 AM sdtanyanlan ***@***.***> wrote: My name is Peter Tan, and I am a faculty member at Jiangsu University. I have been using WebWork as an invaluable teaching tool since 2015 and would like to express my gratitude to the community for maintaining such an excellent open-source platform. I am writing to seek clarification regarding the licensing and copyright permissions for using WebWork problems in a commercial textbook, mainly used in my university. The textbook is scheduled to be formally published soon. To support the learning experience, I have set up a local WebWork server and translated selected practice problems into Chinese. These problems are not printed in the book but are accessed by students via hyperlinks embedded in the textbook, directing them to my local server. Given that the textbook is a commercial publication, I want to ensure full compliance with all relevant licenses. Specifically, I would appreciate your guidance on the following question: all problems I intend to use originate from the Open Problem Library (OPL) and translated into Madarin, Does linking to these translated problems from a commercially sold textbook constitute "commercial use" that violates the NonCommercial clause? I am committed to respecting the intellectual property rights of problem authors and the WebWork community. Any guidance, documentation references, or contacts you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time and for your continued dedication to open-source mathematics education. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2/discussions/3051?email_source=notifications&email_token=ABEDOAB6GWP7IDELR6YI7K35EIMHHA5CNFSNUABBM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63RPGEYDIMJQGMYTPJTSMVQXG33OVJZXKYTTMNZGSYTFMSSWK5TFNZ2KYZTPN52GK4S7MNWGSY3L__;!!Ka_JY85zDv0FFw!l24WbNGJc8wOTW5qujJ04bf0-H60Ez0fMdf4xgXC631eEWZT64ogEU_2C02TIRhh9YjlkYy3k0gcvlwoizxjF6_SblA$>, or unsubscribe <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABEDOAEQBA4WLSZSPKLH2LT5EIMHHAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMZTANRUGU3TGO2ENFZWG5LTONUW63R3GEYDIMJQGMYTPILWAI__;!!Ka_JY85zDv0FFw!l24WbNGJc8wOTW5qujJ04bf0-H60Ez0fMdf4xgXC631eEWZT64ogEU_2C02TIRhh9YjlkYy3k0gcvlwoizxj7GCY-a4$> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/ABEDOAC7PCIL4EKZPHLGR635EIMHHA5CNFSNUABBM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63RPGEYDIMJQGMYTPJTSMVQXG33OVJZXKYTTMNZGSYTFMSSWK5TFNZ2KUZTPN52GK4S7NFXXG__;!!Ka_JY85zDv0FFw!l24WbNGJc8wOTW5qujJ04bf0-H60Ez0fMdf4xgXC631eEWZT64ogEU_2C02TIRhh9YjlkYy3k0gcvlwoizxjh4cbomQ$> and Android <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/ABEDOAD7EX6IXIYYLIMCHGD5EIMHHA5CNFSNUABBM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63RPGEYDIMJQGMYTPJTSMVQXG33OVJZXKYTTMNZGSYTFMSSWK5TFNZ2K4ZTPN52GK4S7MFXGI4TPNFSA__;!!Ka_JY85zDv0FFw!l24WbNGJc8wOTW5qujJ04bf0-H60Ez0fMdf4xgXC631eEWZT64ogEU_2C02TIRhh9YjlkYy3k0gcvlwoizxj0CwsjLE$>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

Alex Jordan Mathematics Instructor Portland Community College