LibreHealth Contribution Policy

You and other contributors are part of the growing LibreHealth community. We work together to share ideas, software, documentation, bug fixes, development tools, project management resources, and anything else of value that you contribute to create successful health IT software for the world. Our success is solely credited to our contributors, working together as a community.

Our Contribution Policy is simple: Voluntary contributions are gratefully accepted as long as the LibreHealth community and all downstream users are allowed to use those contributions for our mission to benefit the public.

There are many kinds of contributions we invite you to make for this cause:

  • Tangible contributions of intellectual property such as source code and documentation, ideas and inventions, and other technical solutions to health care delivery problems
  • In-kind and financial donations to support our activities
  • Contributions of your time and your efforts to communicate and cooperate with each other in the LibreHealth project.

LibreHealth accepts intellectual property contributions of many kinds and then collects them into LibreHealth software distributions that are licensed to the public under the open source Mozilla Public License 2.0 with Healthcare Disclaimer (MPL 2.0 HD). Non-code contributions such as documentation, images, or other creative works are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The details around intellectual property contributions in particular are often tricky to understand. As described more fully below, LibreHealth project teams review all software contributions to ensure that open source licenses for the contributions are compatible with the MPL 2.0 HD license.

If you have questions about any aspect of the LibreHealth Contribution Policy, please contact community@librehealth.io.

Contributions of Intellectual Property

Software includes both functional and expressive works, and it sometimes arrives encumbered with many varieties of legal interests that can be owned, licensed, monopolized or sold, or limited for its use in derivative or advanced software. The LibreHealth project collects such contributed software into larger packages that we distribute as collective works under the MPL 2.0 HD license. To do so, we must ensure that the open source licenses applying to those contributions are compatible with MPL 2.0 HD, and that there are no intellectual property encumbrances that would prevent the use of our collective software for health care delivery worldwide.

As is described in the LibreHealth Copyright and DMCA Policy, we respect all copyrights and copyright licenses.

To ensure licensing consistency, we take steps to determine that contributions of intellectual property are not encumbered. These are the steps:

  1. We accept contributions only from people who identify themselves as an individual with a public account on LibreHealth websites. Each person’s profile, and all other materials he or she posts on LibreHealth websites, is available to the public. See the LibreHealth Privacy Policy for more information.
  2. All contributions are required to be the contributor’s own work licensed to LibreHealth under an approved open source license, or a work that is licensed to that contributor for redistribution to LibreHealth under an approved open source license. LibreHealth project teams have responsibility for knowing their contributors and those contributions, as would be expected of any professional software project. Random contributions from unknown project participants without information suitable for a NOTICE file are likely not to be accepted by an LibreHealth project.
  3. LibreHealth projects may accept ideas, suggestions, bug fixes, and other similar contributions from the public. Our standards and rules of behavior in such situations say that we should identify and acknowledge those informal and formal contributions. A NOTICE file included with each software release by the LibreHealth community will identify the provenance of all contributions, to the best of the contributors’ and the project team’s current knowledge and belief. Each contributor is responsible for providing enough information so that the appropriate LibreHealth project team can prepare a correct NOTICE file.

Contents of the NOTICE File

The NOTICE file that accompanies every formal distribution of software by an LibreHealth project identifies each third-party component in that software and the open source or Creative Commons license under which that component is available to the public. The following information, if available, will also be included in the NOTICE file:

  • Copyright notices supplied by the licensor(s) of any part of the software. LibreHealth project teams may elect to remove individual copyright notices that detract from the “community” ethos of the project, but individual copyrights will still be protected by a legally-effective and encompassing copyright notice such as “Copyright (C) 2016 Humanitech Inc.”
  • Patent notices identifying specific patents or patent claims that may read on the software. Contributors and all project team members are expected to disclose any patent claims of which they are aware. In the event that possible patent claims may be confidential, the contributor must disclose enough about them to alert the public about possible future encumbrances.
  • Identification of industry standards implemented by the software.
  • LibreHealth community projects and contributors may also include acknowledgement and attribution to individuals, companies or other organizations for significant portions of the software or its documentation, or who contributed in other ways to the project as a whole.
  • Other important notices that the LibreHealth project team or its contributors want to share with the downstream users of that software.

Approved Open Source Licenses for LibreHealth Contributions

LibreHealth relies on the recommendations of Open Source Initiative, the Free Software Foundation, and Creative Commons to determine which free and open source licenses are compatible with the Mozilla Public License 2.0 with Healthcare Disclaimer (MPL 2.0 HD) under which LibreHealth distributes software and documentation.

Some of those licenses may not be compatible with the license requirements of some commercial companies. That is another purpose for the NOTICE file that LibreHealth projects provide with each software distribution. Each downstream modifier and/or distributor of LibreHealth software and documentation is responsible for making such license compatibility determinations for itself.

Rest assured that LibreHealth software and documentation can be used for free by everyone in the world under the open source MPL 2.0 HD license.

Acknowledgements

This work, “LibreHealth Contribution Policy”, is a derivative of “OpenMRS Contribution Policy” by OpenMRS Inc., used under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). “LibreHealth Contribution Policy” is licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) by Humanitech Inc.


LibreHealth Copyright & DMCA Policy

All software on any LibreHealth website is distributed to the public by Humanitech Inc. under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 with Healthcare Disclaimer (MPL 2.0 HD). All other content such as documentation or other creative works is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Humanitech Inc. and the LibreHealth community respect all copyrights and copyright licenses. If you see any infringing content on the LibreHealth website, email list or any other resource, please refer to the DMCA instructions at the end of this page.

Software and Documentation Licenses

Individual components of LibreHealth software and documentation may also be available to the public under the open licenses chosen by their copyright holders.

We disclose information about those components and their licenses in the NOTICE file that accompanies our software.

See the LibreHealth Contribution Policy for more information about the contents of the NOTICE file.

Website Content Copyrights

Any and all original material that is posted by any member of the public or by a registered LibreHealth contributor to any LibreHealth-operated website shall be publicly available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted. Certain material that is not original to LibreHealth (which will be specifically noted as such) may require permission from the copyright holder to redistribute.

You do NOT have to ask permission to post your own material on a LibreHealth mailing list or forum. Refer to the LibreHealth Privacy Policy for additional information about such postings.

You do NOT have to ask permission to reprint an LibreHealth statement from our website in an article. Permission to do this is explicitly granted. Note also that the open source and Creative Commons licenses used for copyrighted materials on LibreHealth websites all allow such fair uses.

If you redistribute something you retrieved from a LibreHealth website, please inform recipients where that copyrighted work originated, so people can get more information or updated versions directly at the LibreHealth website.

LibreHealth Trademarks

LibreHealth trademarks and logos may only be used in their unmodified forms. They are not licensed under an open source license. You do NOT have to ask permission to use the official LibreHealth logo as a hyperlink to a LibreHealth website from your own website.

Refer to the LibreHealth Trademark Policy for additional information.

##DMCA Notices and Copyright Infringement Notification

If you believe there is content on an LibreHealth website that violates copyright law, let us know. The notice should be sent to our designated agent, Michael Downey via email (community@librehealth.io).

Specifically, send us an email or letter that includes substantially the following:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
  3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
  4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
  5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

We may display a copy of your DMCA notice in place of the removed content.

Note: Under Section 512(f) of the DMCA, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability for damages. In addition, “in order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with “a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,” the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright.” Lenz v. Universal, 572 F. Supp. 2d 1150, 1155 (2008)

LibreHealth reserves the right to review the allegedly infringing material and independently determine whether it is infringing.

Please also note that the information provided in this legal notice will be forwarded to the person who provided the allegedly infringing content. A copy of this legal notice may also be sent (with your personal information removed) to a third-party that may publish and/or annotate it for noncommercial research and educational purposes.

Counter-Notification: What You Can Do If Your Content Was Removed

If you believe material you posted to a LibreHealth website was not infringing, you can submit a counter-notice. If you need assistance in determining whether the material was not infringing, please find an independent attorney to evaluate your situation.

A counter-notification must include the following:

  1. Identification of the specific URLs of material that LibreHealth has removed or to which LibreHealth has disabled access.
  2. Your full name, address, telephone number, and email address.
  3. The statement: “I consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district in which my address is located, or if my address is outside of the United States, the judicial district in which LibreHealth’s intellectual property owner is located, and will accept service of process from the claimant.” The current intellectual property owner for LibreHealth is Humanitech Inc., which is incorporated in the Southern District of Florida.
  4. The statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.”

A scanned physical signature or a valid electronic signature is fine.

Please send your counter-notice to Michael Downey via email (community@humanitech.io).

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

After we receive your counter-notification, we will forward it to the party who submitted the original claim of copyright infringement. Please note that when we forward the counter-notification, it includes your personal information. If you are concerned about protecting your anonymity, please consult with an attorney about other options.

After we send out the counter-notification, the claimant must then notify us within 10 business days that the claimant has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on the LibreHealth website(s). If we receive such notification we will be unable to restore the material. If we do not receive such notification, generally we will reinstate the material.

Please also be advised that in appropriate circumstances we will deny access to the LibreHealth website by repeat infringers.

Acknowledgements

This work, "LibreHealth Copyright & DMCA Policy”, is a derivative of “OpenMRS Contribution Policy” by OpenMRS Inc., and “Copyright Policy” by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), both used under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). “LibreHealth Copyright & DMCA Policy” is licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) by Humanitech Inc.


LibreHealth Trademark Policy

Open source software from LibreHealth is free to copy, to modify and to distribute. It is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 with Healthcare Disclaimer (MPL 2.0 HD).

Meanwhile, the trademarks for this software – including the “LibreHealth” wordmark and the [graphic logo] (community-design-assets/librehealth-o.svg at master · LibreHealthIO/community-design-assets · GitHub) – are kept as private property. Trademarks are different than copyrights, particularly in an open source community such as LibreHealth. Trademarks can only be copied for certain specific purposes (“nominative fair use”) and cannot be modified in a way to confuse consumers about the origin of the FOSS software (“confusing similarity”). These trademark law terms are described more completely below.

Examples of FOSS trademarks: Linux, Eclipse, Apache, JBoss, MySQL, Firefox, Mozilla, Jaspersoft, Hadoop, Java, OpenOffice etc.

“LibreHealth” is like those trademarks. It is a visible brand associated with high-quality open source software for healthcare. It is a brand created by our worldwide community. Our brand represents our collective pride and our reputation. We do not want anyone to misuse or misappropriate our brand. We want the value of our trademarks to accrue to LibreHealth and its participants as a whole.

Humanitech Inc. is a non-profit corporation that owns and manages all LibreHealth-related trademarks, service marks, and graphic logos in service of our volunteer community. As a US-based corporation, we have a legal responsibility and authority to set guidelines for the use of our marks. This Trademark Policy outlines how we use our trademarks and logos to identify software developed and distributed by LibreHealth.

The following information helps ensure our marks and logos are used in approved ways, while making it easy for the community we serve to understand the guidelines. If you have any questions about the use of logos or trademarks that are not addressed in these guidelines, feel free to contact us at community@librehealth.io.

Rationale for the LibreHealth Trademark Policy

LibreHealth trademarks, service marks, and graphic marks are symbols of the quality and community support that people have come to associate with projects of the LibreHealth community. To ensure that the use of LibreHealth marks will not lead to confusion about our software, we must control their use in association with software and related services by others. LibreHealth and its software must be clearly distinguishable from any software from third parties, and from software or services by any company or individual that is not specifically authorized and approved by LibreHealth.

We must also prevent LibreHealth marks from being used to disparage LibreHealth software, our projects, members, sponsors, or communities, and prevent their use in any way to imply ownership, endorsement, or sponsorship of any LibreHealth-related project or initiative of any kind.

Key Trademark Principles

This document is not intended to summarize the complex law of trademarks. It will be useful, however, to understand the following key principles:

What is a trademark?

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Throughout this policy document, the terms “trademark” and “mark” refer to both trademarks and service marks.

These rules are generalized in this document to describe LibreHealth software associated with the trademark “LibreHealth Foo™”, or more briefly “Foo™” when it is understood to refer to this specific LibreHealth Foo software. Like all LibreHealth software, this Foo software is maintained by a LibreHealth project or sub-project.

LibreHealth trademarks are either words (e.g., “LibreHealth” and “LibreHealth Foo” and “Foo”) or graphic logos that are intended to serve as trademarks for that LibreHealth software. The LibreHealth graphic logo is described in the LibreHealth Logo Policy, has special meaning for the LibreHealth community: We intend that graphic logo to be used for linking third party websites to LibreHealth websites.

Within LibreHealth projects, during our product release activity and on LibreHealth websites, we will make sure that our trademarks are marked with a ™ or (R) symbol or shown with trademark notices where appropriate so that everyone will recognize them as LibreHealth trademarks. A current list of LibreHealth trademarks is available at http://librehealth.io/.

What is nominative use?

Anyone can use LibreHealth trademarks if that use of the trademark is nominative. The “nominative use” (or “nominative fair use”) defense to trademark infringement is a legal doctrine that authorizes everyone (even commercial companies) to use another person’s trademark as long as three requirements are met:

  1. The product or service in question must be one not readily identifiable without use of the trademark (for example, it is not easy to identify Apple iPhone software without using the trademark “iPhone”); and
  2. Only so much of the mark or marks may be used as is reasonably necessary to identify the product or service; and
  3. The organization using the mark must do nothing that would, in conjunction with the mark, suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder.

The trademark nominative fair use defense is intended to encourage people to refer to trademarked goods and services by using the trademark itself. This trademark defense has nothing to do with copyright fair use and should not be confused with those rules.

What is the “confusing similarity” or “likelihood of confusion” test?

Some uses of another person’s trademark are nominative fair use, but some uses are simply infringing. Indeed, if a trademark is used in such a way that the relevant consuming public will likely be confused or mistaken about the source of a product or service sold or provided using the mark in question, then likelihood of confusion exists and the mark has been infringed.

Note that, even if there is no likelihood of confusion, you may still be liable for using another company’s trademark if you are blurring or tarnishing their mark under United States federal and/or state dilution laws, or other laws around the world.

To avoid infringing LibreHealth marks, you should verify that your use of our marks is nominative and that you are not likely to confuse software consumers that your software is the same as LibreHealth software or is endorsed by LibreHealth. This policy is already summarized in section 2.3 of the Mozilla Public License (MPL 2.0), and so it is a condition for your use of LibreHealth software and associated documentation:

This License does not grant any rights in the trademarks, service marks, or logos of any Contributor (except as may be necessary to comply with the notice requirements in Section 3.4).

Specific Guidelines

The following Specific Guidelines apply to the “LibreHealth” word trademark and the LibreHealth graphic logo, as well as the trademarks and graphic logos for typical “LibreHealth Foo” and “Foo” software produced by LibreHealth projects or sub-projects. You may refer to our list of current LibreHealth marks at http://librehealth.io/.

Examples of permitted nominative fair use:

  • “Free copies of LibreHealth EMR software under the MPL 2.0 HD license and support services for LibreHealth EMR are available at my own company website.”

  • “Derivative works of LibreHealth EMR software and support services for those derivative works are available under my own trademarks - at my website.” Please remember that, under trademark law, you may not apply trademarks to your derivative works of LibreHealth software that are confusingly similar to a product name such as “LibreHealth EMR”, or any of our graphic logos.

  • “Foo software is faster (or slower) than Myco software.”

  • “I recommend (or don’t recommend) Foo software for your business.”

  • “This is the graphic logo for LibreHealth EMR software: ”

Using LibreHealth trademarks in book and article titles

You may write about LibreHealth software, and use our trademarks in book or article titles. You needn’t ask us for permission to refer to Foo, as in “Foo for Dummies”, or “Explaining Foo”, or “Foo Simplified”, or even “Avoiding Foo”.

We prefer that you refer to “LibreHealth Foo” rather than simply “Foo” in the title if it fits, and we request that you clearly identify that “LibreHealth”, “LibreHealth Foo”, and “Foo” are trademarks of Humanitech Inc. wherever you normally acknowledge important trademarks in your book or article.

Using LibreHealth graphic logos

Graphic logos are contributed to LibreHealth by artists as a way of creating a symbol with which the LibreHealth software can be identified. Those graphic logos are special to the LibreHealth projects that mark their software with those logos. The LibreHealth graphic logo is a special trademark to LibreHealth and we intend to prevent its use in association with other companies’ software or related services.

It is not necessary to ask us for permission to use LibreHealth graphic logos (the versions published on LibreHealth websites) on your own website solely as a hyperlink to LibreHealth websites, or in other materials, such as presentations and slides, solely as a means to refer to LibreHealth or the LibreHealth community itself.

All other uses of the LibreHealth graphic logo must be approved in writing by Humanitech Inc.

If you have any questions or concerns about the use of or changes to any LibreHealth graphic trademark, email us at community@librehealth.io.

Using LibreHealth trademarks on merchandise

We will typically grant written permission to apply LibreHealth trademarks (including graphic logos) for merchandise that promotes LibreHealth, its software, community, or its worldwide mission.

Permission to apply LibreHealth trademarks will ordinarily be denied for merchandise that disparages LibreHealth software or projects or that would serve to detract from the value of LibreHealth, its software, community, or its brands.

Using LibreHealth trademarks in domain names

You may not use LibreHealth trademarks such as “LibreHealth” or “LibreHealth Foo” or “Foo” in your own domain names if that use would be likely to confuse a relevant consumer about the source of software or services provided through your website. You should apply the “likelihood of confusion” test described above, and please realize that the use of LibreHealth trademarks in your domain names is generally not “nominative fair use.”

Using LibreHealth trademarks in relation to conferences and events

Certain LibreHealth trademarks may be reserved exclusively for official LibreHealth activities. For example, “LibreHealth Summit” may be used as our exclusive trademark for our regular LibreHealth conferences, and the LibreHealth graphic icon is intended for LibreHealth use at events in which we participate.

Individual LibreHealth projects (such as “LibreHealth EMR”) may create their own conferences and events, or join with other organizations or companies to hold joint conferences or events.

The following uses of LibreHealth trademarks are probably infringing:

  • Confusingly similar software product names.
  • Software service offerings that are for anything other than official LibreHealth-distributed software.
  • Company names that may be associated in customer’s minds with LibreHealth or its trademarked project software.

Important Notes

Nothing in this LibreHealth Trademark Policy shall be interpreted to allow any third party to claim any association with LibreHealth, Humanitech Inc., or any of its projects or to imply any approval or support by Humanitech Inc. for any third party products or services.

LibreHealth and the LibreHealth graphic logo is a trademark owned by Humanitech Inc.

Acknowledgements

This work, “LibreHealth Trademark Policy”, is a derivative of “OpenMRS Trademark Policy” by OpenMRS Inc., used under used under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), and which was adapted from “Trademark Policy” by the Apache Software Foundation, licensed under the Apache License version 2.0. “LibreHealth Trademark Policy” is licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) by Humanitech Inc.