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Research dossier · General Reference

Design Science License

Type of copyright license

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 16, 2025
Entity authorityQ2352806 ↗
Source-derived summary

Design Science License (DSL) is a copyleft license for any type of free content such as text, images, music. Unlike other open source licenses, the DSL was intended to be used on any type of copyrightable work, including documentation and source code. It was the first “generalized copyleft” license. The DSL was written by Michael Stutz.

The DSL came out in the 1990s, before the formation of the Creative Commons. Once the Creative Commons arrived in 2002 december, Stutz considered the DSL experiment "over" and no longer recommended its use.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Design Science License” as type of copyright license. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Design, Science and License.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2002—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1999. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Design, Science and License providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Design Science License”, the useful work is to connect “type of copyright license” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2352806. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2002.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Design Science License”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Design Science License primary sources, Design Science License archive and Design research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Design Science License”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Design Science License” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.