BIP3: drop optional License Code header

jonatack commented at 9:10 pm on July 25, 2025: member

based on @real-or-random’s #1892 (comment).

Also a couple of minor BIP3 touch-ups.

jonatack assigned jonatack on Jul 25, 2025

jonatack assigned murchandamus on Jul 25, 2025

jonatack unassigned jonatack on Jul 25, 2025

jonatack added the label Proposed BIP modification on Jul 25, 2025

jonatack added the label Pending acceptance on Jul 25, 2025

murchandamus commented at 11:43 pm on July 25, 2025: contributor

Thanks, looks good. Could you please also mention in the Backwards Compatibility section under Preamble that the License-Code has been sunset?

in bip-0003.md:399 in 8871d28b81 outdated

395@@ -397,29 +396,18 @@ For example, a preamble might include the following License header:
396 
397     License: CC0-1.0 OR MIT
398 
399-In this case, the BIP (including all auxiliary files) is made available under the terms of both Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal as well as the
400+In this case, the BIP (including all auxiliary files) is made available under the terms of both Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal as well as the

real-or-random commented at 6:09 am on July 28, 2025:

Thanks, what I wrote was a mixup of “Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal” (what SPDX calls it) and “CC0 1.0 Universal” (this is the “official” title used by Creative Commons).

I’d slightly prefer the latter, mostly because it’s more common. But, using either is certainly better than my mixup.

jonatack commented at 5:35 pm on July 28, 2025:

Updated to the latter.

in bip-0003.md:410 in 8871d28b81 outdated

420-    License:         CC0-1.0
421-    License-Code:    MIT
422-
423-In this case, the source code in the BIP is not available under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal, but is only available under the MIT
424-License.
425+A few BIP2-era BIPs may have a License-Code header; in such cases please refer to BIP2.

real-or-random commented at 6:19 am on July 28, 2025:

0A few BIP2-era BIPs have a License-Code header; in such cases please refer to BIP2.

(We’re sure about this.)

If you drop “source code” as suggested above, then it may be a good idea to explain “License-Code”:

0A few BIP2-era BIPs have a License-Code header indicating the license terms applicable to auxiliary source code files; in such cases please refer to BIP2.

jonatack commented at 5:35 pm on July 28, 2025:

Done

in bip-0003.md:404 in 8871d28b81 outdated

404 
405-It is also possible to specify that source code is licensed differently by including the optional License-Code header
406-after the License header. Again, the licensing terms must be specified using an SPDX License Expression.
407-
408-Each auxiliary source code file or source directory should specify the license under which it is made available as is common in
409+If different from those specified in the License header, each auxiliary source code file or source directory should specify the license under which it is made available as is common in

real-or-random commented at 6:23 am on July 28, 2025:

If you want to express that each file with a different license should specify it explicitly, then “where” or “wherever” is more precise than “if”.
I also suggest dropping “source code”. There may be other files such as images.
This says “license” but it could more than one license. I suggest “license terms” or just “terms”. I’m not sure if it’s the greatest term (no pun intended!) but we use it above to refer to “some AND/OR combination of licenses”, so it’s consistent.

Combined:

0Wherever different from those specified in the License header, an auxiliary file or directory should specify the license terms under which it is made available as is common in

Is it worth adding a clarifying sentence like: “Such exceptions should also be mentioned in the Copyright section.”?

jonatack commented at 5:35 pm on July 28, 2025:

Took all suggestions (thanks!)

in bip-0003.md:150 in 8871d28b81 outdated

145@@ -147,7 +146,7 @@ appear in the following order. Headers marked with "\*" are optional. All other
146   Authors header. See the [BIP Ownership](#bip-ownership) section above.
147 * Status — The stage of the workflow of the proposal. See the [Workflow](#workflow) section below.
148 * Type — See the [BIP Types](#bip-types) section below for a description of the three BIP types.
149-* License and License-Code — These headers specify SPDX License Expressions describing the licenses under which the
150+* License — The License header specifies SPDX License Expressions describing the licenses under which the
151   BIP and corresponding code are available. See the [BIP Licensing](#bip-licensing) section below.

real-or-random commented at 6:25 am on July 28, 2025:

I suggest: “under which the BIP and its auxiliary files are available.”

jonatack commented at 5:34 pm on July 28, 2025:

Done

real-or-random commented at 6:29 am on July 28, 2025: contributor

Sorry for being slow. This was on my list, thanks for taking care of it!

jonatack force-pushed on Jul 28, 2025

jonatack commented at 5:49 pm on July 28, 2025: member

Updated to take all the review feedback (thanks!).

in bip-0003.md:546 in fd16929ac6 outdated

542@@ -555,6 +543,7 @@ mentioned in the [Changelog](#changelog) section.
543 - The "Post-History" header is replaced with the "Discussion" header.
544 - The optional "Version" header is introduced.
545 - The "Discussions-To" header is dropped as it has never been used in any BIP.
546+- The "License-Code" header has been sunset, as it was used by only five BIPs (98, 116, 117, 330, 340) and created more ambiguity than clarity.

murchandamus commented at 7:28 pm on July 28, 2025:

Just noticed that this says License-Code was used by five BIPs, but below line 734, it says that License-Code was used four times. I must have overlooked BIP 340. But since line 546 is just being introduced here, perhaps it could be made consistent.

jonatack commented at 10:54 pm on July 28, 2025:

Good catch, done.

murchandamus commented at 7:31 pm on July 28, 2025: contributor

Thanks, good improvements.

BIP3: drop optional License Code header

Co-authored-by: Tim Ruffing <crypto@timruffing.de>
Co-authored-by: Murch <murch@murch.one>

12dc0e04a2

BIP3: refer to CC0 1.0 Universal

per https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.en

and add a missing word

Co-authored-by: Tim Ruffing <crypto@timruffing.de>

6f2f4aa233

jonatack force-pushed on Jul 28, 2025

murchandamus commented at 0:54 am on July 29, 2025: contributor

LGTM

real-or-random approved

real-or-random commented at 6:35 am on July 29, 2025: contributor

ACK 6f2f4aa23353e75baa53cfb735bf1c9b8d635f60

BIP3: drop optional License Code header #1904