Licences

This page explains common content licences in simple terms and how CueCrux handles them. It is guidance for users not legal advice. For legal terms, see Terms of Use and Privacy.

How CueCrux Uses Licences

Every artefact carries a licence badge (e.g., CC‑BY, Public Domain, All Rights Reserved).
The Engine prefers clearly licenced evidence; unclear or incompatible licences are down‑weighted.
In receipts and UI, we show the badge next to each citation so you can decide how to reuse it.
When a source disallows reuse, the platform may still show short quotes for the purpose of citation and verification, but will avoid derivative use in exports.
If a site blocks bots (robots.txt) or its terms prohibit use, we switch to metadata‑only mode (reference without payload) or exclude it, depending on policy.

Quick Reference (What you can/can’t do)

Badge	You may	You must	You cannot
Public Domain / CC0	Copy, adapt, reuse, even commercially	-
CC‑BY	Copy, adapt, reuse, even commercially	Give credit (attribution)	-
CC‑BY‑SA	Copy/adapt, even commercially	Give credit; share new work under same licence	Change licence to a more restrictive one
CC‑BY‑NC	Copy/adapt for non‑commercial use	Credit; non‑commercial only	Commercial use without permission
CC‑BY‑ND	Copy and share	Credit; no derivatives	Modify the work
CC‑BY‑NC‑SA/ND	Non‑commercial (plus SA/ND rules)	Credit; follow the extra rule	Commercial use (and/or derivatives)
Open Government Licence (OGL)	Copy, publish, adapt	Credit the source; no endorsement claims	Misrepresent or imply official status
ODbL / ODC‑By (data)	Share and adapt databases	Attribute; share‑alike for derivatives (ODbL)	Hide derivative database terms
MIT / Apache‑2.0 (code)	Use, copy, modify	Include licence notice; apache patent terms	Remove notices
GPL / AGPL (code)	Use, modify, distribute	Provide source/code under same licence on distribution	Combine/distribute under incompatible terms
All Rights Reserved	Quote small excerpts for citation/fair dealing	Credit; link to source	Reuse entire content without permission

Notes

“Non‑commercial” means you need permission for commercial use. “Share‑Alike (SA)” means derivatives must carry the same licence.
For code, quoting a short snippet in a proof is not the same as redistributing a library.

Decision Guide (At a Glance)

flowchart TD
    A["Found a source"] --> B{"Licence clear?"}
    B -- "Yes" --> C{"Robots/ToS allow crawl?"}
    B -- "No" --> M["Down-weight or metadata-only/exclude"]
    C -- "Yes" --> D["Create artefact with payload"]
    C -- "No" --> E["Metadata-only (no payload)"]
    D --> F{"Badge"}
    F -- "CC0 / PD / CC-BY / OGL" --> G["Normal reuse with credit"]
    F -- "CC-BY-SA" --> H["Reuse allowed; must share-alike"]
    F -- "NC / ND variants" --> I["Non-commercial or no derivatives"]
    F -- "ARR or Unknown" --> J["Quote small excerpts only; no derivative reuse"]

flowchart TD
    A["Found a source"] --> B{"Licence clear?"}
    B -- "Yes" --> C{"Robots/ToS allow crawl?"}
    B -- "No" --> M["Down-weight or metadata-only/exclude"]
    C -- "Yes" --> D["Create artefact with payload"]
    C -- "No" --> E["Metadata-only (no payload)"]
    D --> F{"Badge"}
    F -- "CC0 / PD / CC-BY / OGL" --> G["Normal reuse with credit"]
    F -- "CC-BY-SA" --> H["Reuse allowed; must share-alike"]
    F -- "NC / ND variants" --> I["Non-commercial or no derivatives"]
    F -- "ARR or Unknown" --> J["Quote small excerpts only; no derivative reuse"]

CueCrux labels each citation accordingly. Exports respect these limits.

What Shows in the UI

Licence badge next to each citation (e.g., CC‑BY, OGL, ARR).
Link to the source and, where possible, to its licence page.
Warnings when a licence restricts reuse in exports or templates.

Examples of Attribution

Simple attribution for CC‑BY/OGL:

“Installation total for 2024” Energy Regulator Report (2025), CC‑BY, link

For web pages:

Quoted text © 2025 Example News. Used for citation. All rights reserved. Link

For datasets under ODbL:

Contains information from Example City Open Data, ODbL 1.0 modified for analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I always need two sources?
Verified mode aims for diversity when available. Some facts come from a single authoritative source; the UI will say so.

What if the licence is missing?
The artefact is down‑weighted; the UI warns you. Prefer sources with clear licence terms.