License
Semantic Versions is free to read, quote, translate and build on. The specification text is a Creative Commons work, the same license the original Semantic Versioning spec has always used. The reference parser is separately licensed as open source.
Specification text
The prose of this specification, its examples and its diagrams are licensed under CC BY 3.0. You may copy, adapt and redistribute the text in any medium, including for commercial use, as long as you give appropriate credit. This is the same license used by semver.org, and it is deliberate: a versioning spec is only useful if everyone is free to implement and cite it.
Suggested attribution: “Semantic Versions 1.0.0 (semver.xyz), CC BY 3.0.”
Reference parser
The semantic-versions package, the range selector engine and the code
samples in this repository are licensed under
Apache 2.0.
You can use it in open or closed source projects; the license includes an explicit
patent grant and asks only that you preserve notices.
Source and full license text live in the repository.
Why two licenses
A specification and its implementation serve different audiences. The text is documentation, so a Creative Commons license fits: quote it, translate it, teach from it. The parser is software, so a standard open-source software license fits instead. Splitting them keeps both easy to adopt without one constraining the other.